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Portals of the Past. 

This entrance to a residence on Nob Hill was all that was left of the 
house after the fire. It was appropriated by the city and placed in Golden 
Gate Park. 




CALIFORNIA'S STORY 


BY 


HERBERT E. BOLTON 


PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY AND DIRECTOR OF 
THE BANCROFT LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY 
OF CALIFORNIA 


AND 

EPHRAIM D. ADAMS 

* V 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY 




* 




ALLYN and BACON 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

SAN FRANCISCO 


o 




z 


ATLANTA 




rS6i 

ZB<b<\ 

i 


COPYRIGHT, 1922 

BY H. E. BOLTON AND E. D. ADAMS * 



Norfoooti |?rfss 

J. S, Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 


t PR 25 1922 

§T,! A661.422 ' 

V 


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FOREWORD 


This book was written to meet the State requirement 
for the teaching of the history of California in the grades. 
California’s story is told in a simple, interesting way, and 
in language well within the comprehension of young pupils. 

In telling the story of California, the authors have em¬ 
phasized those qualities of courage, self-sacrifice, and serv¬ 
ice which have been typified in the State’s great men. The 
devotion and heroism of the early Fathers, the boldness of 
the Vigilantes, the initiative of the pioneers, the generosity 
of men prominent in later years — all contribute to the 
development of that type of citizenship toward which it is 
hoped all users of this book will strive as an ideal. 

At the same time, the book presents the history, geog¬ 
raphy, industry, and life of the State, and to accomplish 
this better the text has been lavishly supplemented with 
pictures — one of the most effective means of instruction 
for young pupils. The authors are indebted to Mr. George 
R. King, formerly of California, now of Boston, for per¬ 
mission to use his remarkable collection of California views. 


April, 1922 


H. E. B. 
E. D. A. 







TABLE OF CONTENTS 


List of 

Illustrations and Maps. 


vii 

CHAPTER 



PAGE 

I. 

Spaniards Discover California 

. 

1 

II. 

Francis Drake. 


19 

III. 

Looking for a Harbor. 


25 

IV. 

A Time of Waiting. 


43 

V. 

PoRTOLA AND SeRRA ...... 


50 

VI. 

Anza, Trail Maker and Founder of San Francisco 

61 

VII. 

Old Spanish and Mexican Days 


76 

VIII. 

Paradise Invaded ...... 


84 

IX. 

Fremont and the American Flag 


95 

X. 

Gold and the Forty-Niners .... 


104 

XI. 

Getting into the Union. 


118 

XII. 

The Vigilantes ....... 


131 

XIII. 

The Pony Express and the Pacific Railroad 


138 

XIV. 

Troublous Times and the New Constitution 


146 

XV. 

Thirty Years of Growth .... 


152 

XVI. 

Courage in Disaster. 


165 

XVII. 

New Political Life. 


175 

XVIII. 

The Men of California. 


190 


V 













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ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 


Portals of the Past ....... Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The Ships of Columbus on His Voyage of Discovery . . . 1 

The Meeting of Cortez and Montezuma.2 

The Grizzly Giant, Wawona Grove ...... 3 

Cortez.4 

Cortez’ Armor .... f ..... 4 

Old Map of California.5 

Cabrillo ........... 6 

The San Diego Exposition ........ 7 

Indian Woman Baking in an Indian Bake-Oven .... 8 

San Miguel Mission.9 

A Bit of Sea Coast near the Bay of Smokes .... 10 

Log Cabin at the Center of Wawona Grove . . . .11 

Indian To-day. .12 

Mirror Lake and Mount Watkins.13 

Indian Grinding Acorns . . . . . . . .14 

Rogue River, Oregon . . . . . . . . .15 

Device for Storing Acorns . . . . . . . .16 

An Old Mexican Cart.17 

Sand Dunes at Monterey.17 

Sir Francis Drake.19 

Sea Fight between Drake’s Golden Hind and a Spanish Galleon . 20 

Pack Train of a Section of the Sierra Club . . . . . 21 

Primitive Wooden Plow.22 

Great Cypress Tree at Lobos Point, Coast of Monterey . . 23 

Elizabeth Knighting Drake on Board the Golden Hind . . 24 

San Diego Harbor from Broadway.25 

A Priest in the Garden of Santa Barbara Mission ... 26 

Yosemite Falls .......... 27 

Indian Basket Weaver.28 

Cliff Dwellings in Arizona.29 

Mission San Juan Capistrano.30 

Mission San Juan Capistrano.31 

Mission San Luis Rey.32 

Midway Point, Coast of Monterey.33 

vii 




















Vlll 


ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 


Mission San Diego . . . v 

The Cathedral Rocks, Yosemite Valley 




PAGE 

34 




35 

Catalina Island ...... 




36 

Looking out at the Golden Gate . 




37 

Carmel Mission near Monterey . 




39 

The Great Oak at Del Monte Hotel, Monterey 




40 

Half-Dome from Glacier Point 




41 

Mission San Luis Rey. The Cloister . 




43 

San Xavier Mission, Tucson, Arizona . 




44 

Mission San Juan Capistrano 




45 

Mission San Fernando . . • % • 

• 



46 

Mission San Luis Rey. 




47 

Front of Santa Barbara Mission . 




48 

Big Bell at San Gabriel Mission . 




49 

Lava Flow, Mojave Desert ... 




50 

A Mountain View . 


' . 


51 

Jose de Galvez . 




52 

The Landing at San Diego .... 




53 

Mount Rubidoux, Riverside 




54 

A Part of the Old Santa Fe Trail 




55 

Old Dam at San Diego Mission . 




56 

Cherokee Roses . 




57 

Reading Father Serra’s Records . 

• . 



59 

The March to Monterey .... 




60 

Yucca in Bloom ...... 

% 



63 

San Gabriel Mission . 




65 

Old Stairway at San Gabriel Mission . 




66 

Anza’s Party Filing through a Pass 




68 

Benson Pass on the Crest of the High Sierras 




69 

Riverside Seen from Mount Rubidoux j .V 




71 

County Court House at Riverside . . * 




73 

Garden of Santa Barbara Mission 




75 

Map of Early California Settlements . . \ 




76 

Brother Hugolinus at the Door of Santa Barbara 

, Mission 



77 

Kitchen at San Miguel Mission . 




78 

Bell Tower of San Juan Capistrano Mission 




79 

Mission San Juan Bautista .... 




80 

The “ California Mode ” of Catching Cattle, as It Used to 

Be 


Called. 




81 

Monterey. The First Theater in California 




83 

A Scene on Russian River .... 




84 

American Trading Ship. 




85 









ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS ix 

PAGE 

View of the High Sierras.87 

Grape Vine at San Gabriel Planted by the Spanish Fathers . 88 

Bell Tower of San Gabriel Mission ...... 89 

University Peak, High Sierras.90 

Entrance to San Diego Harbor.91 

Natural Palms.92 

John A. Sutter. 94 

John C. Fremont. 95 

General Kearny .......... 96 

Mountains and Forests Fremont Had to Cross .... 97 

John Drake Sloat.98 

Lake Tahoe. 99 

Sutter’s Fort. ... 100 

Raising the American Flag at Monterey. 101 

The Original Bear Flag. 102 

Flag of the Sonoma Troop, California Battalion . . . .103 

Monterey in the Forties.104 

El Capitan, Yosemite Valley ....... 105 

A Modern Residence.106 

Sutter’s Mill.108 

San Francisco before the Gold Rush.109 

City and Bay of Monterey.Ill 

Pioneer Prospecting for Gold ..112 

A Mining Scene.114 

Crossing the Colorado Desert . 115 

A Pioneer Camp Attacked by Indians.116 

San Francisco in the Fifties . ..118 

Nevada Fall, Yosemite Valley.119 

The Old City Hotel in 1849 120 

The First Presbyterian Church.121 

Presidio Terrace, San Francisco . 123 

Gold Rocker, Washing Pan, and Gold Borer .... 124 

The Seal of California.125 

Mono Lake from the Top of Mono Pass . . . . 127 

San Jose in 1856 . 128 

The Camino Real.129 

Sacramento in 1849 131 

The Grizzly Giant, Wawona . . . . . . .133 

Sunset in the Imperial Valley ....... 134 

Cathedral Peaks from Tuolumne Meadows .... 136 

The Overland Mail en Route for San Francisco .... 138 

The Pony Express across the Plains.139 









X 


ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS 


PAGE 

Arrival of the First Overland Stage Coach in San Francisco . 140 

Leland Stanford . . . . ..142 

Leland Stanford Driving the Golden Spike.143 

The Inner Quadrangle at Stanford University . . . .144 

Railroad Building on the Southern Pacific . . . . .146 

A Cherry Orchard ......... 148 

The Capitol at Sacramento . . . . . . . .150 

Rapid Growth. .152 

Rapid Growth.153 

Parent Tree of Washington Navel Orange, Riverside . . .154 

Orange Grove near Glendora . . . . . . .155 

Grape Culture, San Joaquin Valley . . . . . .156 

An Ostrich Farm .......... 157 

Date Palm and Orange Grove with a Background of Snow Moun¬ 
tains ........... 159 

Artesian Well and Field of Sugar Beets . . . . . .160 

A Flock of Five Thousand Sheep . . . . . .161 

Irrigating Canal beside Orange Grove with Snow Mountains 
in the Distance ... . . . . . . . 162 

Sixth Street, Los Angeles, Looking West from Main . . .163 

Ditch Carrying Water to Be Used in Irrigation .... 164 

The Church, Stanford University.165 

Hetch Hetchy Valley.167 

The Campanile, University of California . . . . .168 

Lake Merritt, Overlooking Adams Point, Oakland . . .169 

Twenty-four Hundred Refugee Cottages, Thirteenth Avenue, 

San Francisco.171 

Opening the Panama Pacific Exposition . . . . .173 

Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, Bordered by Eucalyptus and Palm 

Trees.175 

McKinley Park, Sacramento . . . . . . .177 

John Burroughs beside One of His Favorite Trees . . .178 

Hiram Johnson .......... 180 

Main Post Office, San Francisco.181 

Big Tree, Wawona.183 

View across the Campus of the University of California . . 184 

Herbert Hoover .......... 185 

Mount Shasta.187 

Rebuilding San Francisco.190 

Thomas Starr King . . . . . . . . .192 

Kearsarge Pinnacles at the Head of King’s River . . .193 

Theodore D. Judah.194 











ILLUSTRATIONS AND MARS 


XI 


Roosevelt, Muir, Wheeler, and Others, at the Foot of One of the 
Big Trees ........... 

James Lick . 

Pepper Trees, Pasadena ........ 

Winter Scene in a Los Angeles Garden ..... 

John Muir and John Burroughs . 

Gold of Ophir Roses ......... 

Benjamin Ide Wheeler ......... 

David Starr Jordan . 

The Leconte Oak, University of California . 

Map of California ......... 


195 

197 

199 

201 

203 

205 

206 
206 
207 
209 








■ 



CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

CHAPTER I 

SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 

California was not always a part of the United States. Balboa 
It first belonged to Spain and then to Mexico. The dis¬ 
coverers and early settlers were the Spaniards, who reached 


The Ships of Columbus on His Voyage of Discovery. 

our shores by way of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. This 
is the way it came about. As everybody knows, Columbus 
discovered the West Indies. Soon afterward Balboa crossed 
the Isthmus of Panama with a‘ small band of men, and from 
the top of a tree on the mountains discovered the Pacific 
Ocean. Eagerly he descended the western slope, followed 




2 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Cortez 



by his soldiers. Wading into the water and flourishing his 
sword, he claimed the ocean for the king of Spain, naming 
it the South Sea. 

Bold mariners now began to sail up the coasts of Central 
America, looking for gold, strange lands, and a way to the 
East Indies, which Columbus had failed to find. Then 
Cortez conquered the great Indian city of Mexico, and sent 


The Meeting of Cortez and Montezuma. 

Montezuma was Emperor of Mexico, but Cortez c|(3throned him. 

| 

men to build a town and a shipyard near the ocean which 
Balboa had discovered. From his shipyard Cortez sent 
men north to explore, for he had heard marvelous tales of 
great wonders in that direction. There were stories of the 
famous Seven Cities, and of an island inhabited only by 
Amazons. One of the sailors, going farther north than any 
one before him had been, discovered Lower California ( 1533 ) 
and found pearls in the gulf. Cortez, pleased with the 
news, led a colony there, but it did not succeed. The Indians 




SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 


3 


were hostile, food was scarce, the colonists became ill, and 
Cortez went back to Mexico. 



The Grizzly Giant, Wawona Grove. 

This is the largest tree in the world. Another view of it is shown on 
page 133. This tree was already a giant at the time when Cortez discovered 
Lower California. 

At that time Lower California was thought to be an island 
and was called Santa Cruz. But its name was soon changed 
to California. This was the name of a fabled island told of 


The name 
“ Califor¬ 
nia” 





4 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



in a favorite story book of that time. In this story Califor¬ 
nia was “on the right hand of the Indies and very close to 
the Earthly Paradise.” It was peopled with women who 
lived like the Amazons. “ Their arms were of gold, and so 
was the harness of the wild beasts they tamed to ride; for 
in the whole island there was no metal but gold.” Three 


Cortez. Cortez’ Armor. 

hundred years later California proved to be a land rich in 
gold, like the island of the story. 

The Strait Cortez had reached Lower California, but our California 
of Anian had no t y e t been discovered. But it did not long remain 
unknown. In those days many people believed there was 
a great strait, or water passage, called Anian, leading through 
North America. If it could be found, they thought, they 
could go directly from Europe through America, to trade 
for the silks and spices of Asia, and thus save the long voyage 
around Africa or South America. It was while looking for 
this strait that they found our California. 

To seek the strait the explorer Cabrillo sailed north a 




SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 


5 



Old Map of California. 

As the legend explains, it was at this time thought to be “a goodly island.’ 
































6 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Cabrillo 


San Diego 
Bay 


The In¬ 
dians tell of 
Spaniards 
on horse¬ 
back 


few years after the voyage of Cortez. He started from a 
place on the west coast of Mexico, with two vessels named 
the San Salvador and the Victoria. The ocean was stormy 
and it tossed his little boats around like planks of driftwood. 
Sometimes the sailors were afraid they would be lost, but 
they bravely held on. 

After many long days of sailing they reached the beautiful 
bay of San Diego, naming it San Miguel. Golden Califor¬ 
nia at last had been dis¬ 
covered. But for many 
years the gold remained 
hidden in the mountains. 
While Cabrillo was at 
this bay a great storm 
arose, but so good was] 
the harbor that the ships 
were all safe. On the 
shore where Cabrillo 
landed there were In¬ 
dians dressed in the 
skins of animals. They 
shot arrows at the Span¬ 
iards, and wounded three, 
but Cabrillo gave them 
presents and then they 
became friendly. 

Of course it was very 
hard for the white men 
and the red men to understand each other. At this time 
Coronado and his men were exploring New Mexico. The 
Indians had heard about them, and they tried to tell 
Cabrillo. They could not speak a word of Spanish, so they 
used signs. They pointed to the east, then to the Span- 



Cabrillo. 





SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 7 

iards’ beards, their clothing, and their crossbows. Then 
they pranced around as if they were on horseback, and 
made motions like throwing a lance. By this means they 


The San Diego Exposition. 

Little did Cabrillo dream that some day a magnificent city would rise on 
the spot where he first set foot in California. 

made Cabrillo understand that in the interior there were 
bearded men like himself, armed with crossbows and lances, 
and mounted on horses. 






8 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



The Bay of 
Smokes 


The Town 
of Canoes 


Proceeding on their way, the Spaniards saw on shore the 
smoke of many Indian villages. For this reason they called 
one place the Bay of Smokes. It is now called Santa Monica 
Bay. One village farther up the coast, near where Ventura 
now stands, they called the Town of Canoes, because the 
natives rowed out to their ships in long boats, each of which 


Indian Woman Baking in an Indian Bake-Oven. 

The Indians still bake in the same primitive manner as when Cabrillo first 

saw them. 

held twelve or thirteen rowers. Another village near Santa 
The Town Barbara they called the Town of Sardines, because the 
of Sardines j n( jj ans there gave them so many sardines to eat. 

Indian Most of the Indian chiefs were men, but the ruler of one 

customs 0 f the villages was a very wrinkled old woman. This seemed 









SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 


9 



San Miguel Mission. 

San Miguel was the name Cabrillo gave to San Diego when he landed there 
and discovered California. 





10 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



A Bit of Sea Coast Near the Bay of Smokes. 





















SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 11 



Log Cabin at the Center of Wawona Grove. 

The early Indians lived in “ open places like plazas,” but it was in the forests like this that they hunted. 








Cabrillo 
breaks an 
arm 


12 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

strange to the Spaniards. The Indians were dressed in the 
skins of animals. They wore their hair long and tied up 
with strings, and with little pieces of bone, wood, and flint 
attached for ornaments. They planted no crops, but ate 
acorns and white seeds. “It is good food/’ says Cabrillo’s 
diary. They lived in round houses. Their towns had large 



Indians To-day. 

These are the descendants of some of the Indians that the early Spanish 
explorers found in California. 


open places like plazas, and other spaces fenced in. Within 
the inclosures tall poles like masts were set in the ground, 
and mounted with drawings or carvings. The Indians 
danced around the poles, as if worshiping them, Cabrillo 
thought. 

On up the coast Cabrillo sailed, but he was driven back by 
a storm. He took refuge on an island, and while there he 
fell and broke his arm. Undismayed, however, he continued 



SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 13 



Mirror Lake and Mount Watkins. 

When Cabrillo’s men saw mountains like this, it is small wonder they 
thought the mountains would topple over on them. 





14 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


on his way; but when he reached a point above San Fran¬ 
cisco Bay he was forced by another storm to return to the 
island. As they sailed down the coast in midwinter it 
seemed to his men as if the snow-capped Santa Lucia moun- 
Death of tains which overhung the shore would fall upon the ships. 
Cabrillo ^t the island where he had broken his arm, Cabrillo died; 



Indian Grinding Acorns. 

These still form one of the chief articles of food of the Indians. 


but with his last breath he urged his pilot Ferrelo to make 
another effort to find the hoped-for strait. 

Ferrelo Bravely Ferrelo again set forth. After sailing for a few 
days he found himself going faster than he wished, for he was 
now driven north before a violent storm. The two vessels 
were separated and both were nearly lost. So terrible were 



SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 


15 



Oregon represents the “ farthest north ” of Ferrelo’s expedition. It was in this latitude that ho 

was obliged to turn back. 



16 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Device for Storing Acorns. 

This method of keeping the “ good food,” as Cabrillo calls it, is still used 
by the Yosemite Indians. This “ cupboard ” is matted with thorns to keep 
out the squirrels. 



SPANIARDS DISCOVER CALIFORNIA 


17 




An Old Mexican Cart. 

The early Spanish explorers used pack-animals to carry most of their 
supplies when on the march. But in the settlements carts like this were 
sometimes used. 


Sand Dunes at Monterey. 

Ferrelo sailed past this point when looking for the desired strait, but he did 

not land. 










18 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


the waves that they broke over the tops of the little ships. 
No wonder the poor men were badly frightened, for they 
thought they would certainly be wrecked. Many of their 
companions had died from sickness. But the brave pilot 
went on. 

Reaches When they reached the Oregon coast they had to turn 

Oregon back, for the wind now changed and they were driven south, 
again being nearly shipwrecked. But the storm ceased, the 
ships were finally reunited, and after a voyage of nearly ten 
months they reached port in Mexico. Their friends were 
overjoyed, for they had been given up for dead. Their 
bold venture deserves to be remembered by all, for they had 
discovered our California and explored its entire coast. But 
the fabled Strait of Anian still remained hidden in the mists 
of the unknown. Strangely enough, too, Cabrillo and Fer- 
relo had both failed to see the Golden Gate or the great 
bay behind it. 


CHAPTER II 


FRANCIS DRAKE 

But California was not forgotten. Soon after Cabrillo’s 
voyage, Spanish sailors crossed the Pacific Ocean from Mex¬ 
ico and conquered the Philippine Islands. Now the Califor¬ 
nia shore was often seen by sailors returning from Manila to 
Mexico, or looking for the 
strait, or for English “sea 
dogs/’ who robbed the 
Spanish ships of their gold 
and silver, and of their 
silks and spices. 

The sea rover who most 
frightened the Spaniards 
was Francis Drake, a fa¬ 
vorite of England’s “ Good 
Queen Bess.” Several 
times he raided Spanish 
towns round the Gulf of 
Mexico. Later he boldly 
crossed the Atlantic with 
a fleet of ships and passed 
through the Straits of 
Magellan. All but one of 
his vessels turned back or 
were lost in a storm, but with his good ship Pelican he 
reached the Pacific Ocean. He now named his vessel the 
Golden Hind . Sailing up the coast he captured Spanish 

19 



Sib Frances Drake. 
From an old English painting. 


The Ma¬ 
nila Gal¬ 
leon 


Francis 

Drake 


The 

Pelican 






20 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Spanish vessels, sacked towns, and robbed a pack train carrying gold 
gold along the shore. At one town he captured thirty-seven bars 
of gold, each one “of the fashion and bigness of a brickbat.” 
At another place he cut the cables of a Spanish fleet anchored 
in the harbor. From a vessel which he pursued and cap¬ 
tured on the sea he secured “jewels and precious stones, 


Sea Fight between Drake’s Golden Hind and a Spanish Gaeleon. 

thirteen chests full of real plate [silver], four score pound 
weight of gold, and six and twenty tons of silver.” Of 
course the Spaniards called him a pirate. 

Drake’s Drake feared to return through the Straits of Magellan, 

Ba y because of the storms there, and lest he be captured by the 
angered Spaniards. So he decided to cross the Pacific Ocean 
and return by way of India and Africa. Before crossing 
the ocean he sailed north and reached the coast of Califor¬ 
nia, where he entered a harbor to repair the Golden Hind. 





FRANCIS DRAKE 


21 



Pack Train of a Section of the Sierra Club. 

The pack train which Drake robbed was probably proceeding in just this leisurely way when he 

surprised it. 







22 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Drake 
crowned 
by the 
Indians 


Voyage 
around the 
world 


The place where he stopped is still known as Drake’s Bay. 
It can be seen on the map just north of San Francisco. 

On the shore Drake found Indians living in houses of earth 
and poles. They spread the news of his arrival. Soon many 
more came from all the country round, bearing presents and 
making long speeches. They put a crown upon Drake’s 
head, and wished to make him king, or “Great Hioh”—or 
at least so Drake thought. He accepted the crown, and 



Primitive Wooden Plow. 

Used by the Indians whom Drake discovered. 


claimed the country for England. Then he nailed to a post 
a plate bearing Queen Elizabeth’s name, to warn the Span¬ 
iards to keep out. This was not the last time that strange 
happenings occurred on Drake’s Bay. But nobody has ever 
yet found that plate. 

From California Drake sailed away across the Pacific to 
Asia, and returned to England by way of the Cape of Good 
Hope. He had been round the world, a thing of which no 
other Englishman could boast. So great was his fame now 
that Queen Elizabeth visited the Golden Hind, and, standing 




FRANCIS DRAKE 


23 



Great Cypress Tree at Lobos Point, Coast of Monterey. 
One of the many beautiful spots past which Drake sailed. 










24 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Elizabeth Knighting Drake on Board rap Golden Hind. 

on its deck, touched Drake’s shoulder with a sword and 
made him a knight. By his bold voyage to California he 
had thus become Sir Francis Drake. 





CHAPTER III 

LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 

As you may suppose, King Philip of Spain was now much 
worried. This daring voyage by Drake caused him to fear 
that other Englishmen would come and settle in California. 


San Diego Harbor from Broadway. 

When Cermeno was looking for a harbor, he little thought that some 
day a city like this would grace this spot. 

Spain must protect her lands. Besides, a port was needed 
for ships returning from Manila. So other Spaniards were 
sent to explore the California coast. 

One of them was Sebastian Cermeno. As he came from Cermeno 
Manila in one of the great galleons loaded with goods, he 

25 









Wrecked 
at Drake’s 
Bay 


A fight with 
the Indians 



26 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

sailed down the coast toward Mexico, looking for a harbor 
and anxiously scanning the horizon to see if some other 
dreaded English sea dog might be lurking near. All went 
well till he reached the bay where Drake had nailed his brass 
plate sixteen years before. No Englishman was there, but 
perhaps Drake’s ghost was in the storm that cast Cermeno’s 
ship ashore and wrecked it. A priest and another man were 


A Priest in the Garden of Santa Barbara Mission. 

Priests were a part not only of Cermefio’s expedition but of all the early 
Spanish parties. It is to their religious enthusiasm that California owes 
her many missions. 

drowned, and the valuable cargo of silks, beeswax, and por¬ 
celain was lost in the sea. 

It was indeed a sad plight. Eighty men were stranded on 
the shore. In order to get to Mexico, they set to work to 
build a launch from the planks of the wrecked ship. Some 
of the planks were stolen by Indians living there, and when 
Cermeno went to recover them, the Indians shot arrows and 






LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 


27 



Yosemite Falls. 

One of the glories of California. 




28 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Journeys 

inland 


wounded a man; but when more men went to Cermeno’s 
aid they fled. The Spaniards were now rejoiced, for the 
thievish Indians, as they ran, left in their village a supply of 
acorns, which the Spaniards used for food while they were 
building the launch. 

Cermeno made two journeys inland with some of his men 
to get food for the voyage. They bough 4 t some acorns and 



Indian Basket Weaver. 

A descendant of the Indians who sold supplies to Cermeno. 


nuts and also some dogs. They were surprised to find the 
Indians living in caves on the bank of a stream, and to see a 
deer's antlers measuring five feet from tip to tip. At last 
Cermeno and his men sailed away in their small boat, living 
on their slender store of acorns, nuts, and dog meat. After 
a perilous voyage, during which many persons died, a few 




LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 


29 


% 



Cliff Dwellings in Arizona. 

The Indians whom Cermeno found when he journeyed inland lived in caves something like this, 

but they had no buildings such as appear here. 






30 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



reached Mexico and told the story of their marvelous ad¬ 
venture. But the cargo of silk, beeswax, and porcelain still 
lies in the bottom of Drake’s Bay. It would be exciting 
news if one day some Californian should explore the bay and 
find the treasure which has lain there more than three hun¬ 
dred years. 

Vizcaino Cermeno had failed to make the necessary exploration, so 
another expedition was sent out. The man chosen for the 


Mission San Juan Capistrano. 

Vizcaino, like Cermeno, was accompanied by priests, but as yet no mission,?, 
were founded. 

task was Sebastian Vizcaino, a merchant who had crossed 
the Pacific in the Manila galleon. With three ships and a 
launch he sailed from a port of Mexico. But the launch was 
soon found to be useless, and was left on the shore along the 
way. When they tried to sail around the point of Lower 









LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 





* 




Mission San Juan Capistrano. 












32 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The Bay of 
Whales 


A miracle 



California, they were driven back three times by storms. 
They at last got started again, but soon the ships became 
separated, and were not reunited for forty-one days. It 
was a time of great anxiety. 

As Vizcaino sailed along he frequently landed to get water 
and wood, and to cast nets for fish. The sailors saw many 


Mission San Luis Rey. 

The priests who accompanied Vizcaino took advantage of'the miracle de¬ 
scribed below to show how Christians were watched over. 

interesting things and had strange and new experiences. At 
one place they saw the bones of numerous whales which had 
been stranded on the shore, so they named it the Bay of 
Whales. Often it was difficult to get water. 

At one place where they stopped the men dug a hole in the 
beach and put in a pipe or tube. The water which flowed 
into the pipe at the bottom was salty, but that which flowed 






LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 33 

out at the top was fresh. This was regarded as a miracle. 
They succeeded in filling some kegs and two hundred bottles, 


Midway Point, Coast of Monterey. 

One of Vizcaino’s landing places. 

and then bad luck overtook them. There was a heavy surf 
that day, and when they rowed out to the ships the boat 




34 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


San Diego 
Lay 


capsized and some of the bottles were broken. Fortunately 
the kegs were saved. The men escaped, drenched, and hold¬ 
ing their muskets above their heads. But as they were in 
great need of water they did not mind. 

At another place the Indians tried to steal the water bot¬ 
tles and barrels and were prevented only by the Spaniards 



Mission San Diego. 


firing upon them. They howled and ran away, but soon re¬ 
turned, and gave the Spaniards a dog as a peace offering. 

After more than six months of sailing Vizcaino reached the 
bay which Cabrillo had called San Miguel sixty years before. 
He thought it “the finest bay in all the South Sea.” But 
he changed its name to San Diego, and so it is still called. 

The Spaniards went ashore, built a hut, said Mass, scoured 
the ships, and got wood and water. At first not many In- 






LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 35 


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t-, o3 

s “ 

Sj§ 


I 3 
•2 8 
^ T 3 

s a 

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.2 ’3 

3 £« 

§2 
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m ® 
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s ° 
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d 

O .2 

43 S3 

-1 
03 .2 
43 T3 

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36 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



dians were seen, but soon the reason became plain. They 
were hiding. Suddenly upon a hill, a hundred warriors ap¬ 
peared, with feathers upon their heads, war paint on their 
faces, bows and arrows in their hands, shouting angrily. 
Probably some of the Spaniards were frightened. But Viz¬ 
caino said kind words and gave presents to the Indians. 

The presents, at least, spoke a language which the Indians 
could understand. They became friendly and in return gave 


Catalina Island. 

The landing at Avalon. 

presents of marten skins. Indians who were little boys 
when Cabrillo was there sixty years before were now old 
men. Some of the people there had lived to a great age. 
There was a woman on the shore who was so wrinkled and 
looked so very aged that the Spaniards thought she must be 
one hundred and fifty. 

At Catalina Island Vizcaino was met by a multitude of 




View from Berkeley across San Francisco Bay. When we see how narrow the Golden Gate really is, it 
is small wonder that it was overlooked by Cabrillo, Ferrelo, and Vizcaino. 



38 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Women 
dressed in 
sealskins 


An idol 


At Monte¬ 
rey Bay 


f 


friendly Indians in fine canoes, made of planks very nicely 
joined and caulked, and showing that the natives were skill¬ 
ful. The women, could they be seen to-day, would be en¬ 
vied, for they were dressed in sealskins. Furs were cheaper 
then, no doubt. In return for some prickly pears Vizcaino 
gave necklaces to six little girls. Soon the rest of the girls 
came to the ship to ask for necklaces. Let us hope there 
were enough to go round. Vizcaino found the Indians wor¬ 
shiping an idol, which he thought looked like a demon. 
It had two horns, no head, and a carved dog at its feet. He 
was warned by the Indians not to go too near it, but he was 
not afraid. Instead, he boldly marched up and placed a 
cross on top of the idol. To the surprise of the Indians he 
was unhurt. 

Winter was now approaching, so Vizcaino hurried on. 
The most important thing he did in all his voyage was to 
explore Monterey Bay, which Cabrillo had missed. It was 
reached on December 15 (1602) and was named in honor of 
the Count of Monterey, viceroy of Mexico. Landing on the 
shore, Vizcaino’s men built, near a great live oak tree, an 
arbor in which Father Antonio Ascension said Mass. 

Then the general, with Father Antonio and ten soldiers, 
explored the interior. Winding their way southward over 
the pine-covered ridge where the highway now runs, on the 
other side they beheld spread out before them the charming 
little Valley of Carmel. On the south side it was walled in 
by a cliff-like mountain, and down the middle a small 
stream made its way to a little bay. On the edge of the val¬ 
ley large-antlered elks were feeding. Vizcaino tried to cap¬ 
ture some of them, “but they did not wait long enough,” 
he tells us. 

Vizcaino spent Christmas in California, the first white 
man to do so. During his two weeks’ rest in Monterey Bay 


LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 


39 



Carmel Mission near Monterey. 




Christmas 
in Califor¬ 
nia 


40 . CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

he changed his plans. It was clear that not all his vessels 
could continue north. Some of his men had died, forty-five 
others were now ill, and food was running short. So he de¬ 
cided to send one ship back to Mexico, to carry the sick and 
to get more food. The Santo Tomas was supplied with food 
and water, the diaries and maps were copied, the sick men 
were put on board, and on Sunday morning, December 29, 
they set sail. 



The Great Oak at Del Monte Hotel, Monterey. 


The rest of the men prepared to continue the winter voy¬ 
age to Cape Mendocino. The mountains were covered with 
snow, and ice formed on the water in the bottles. The poor 
sailors shivered and their teeth chattered with the cold, for 
they had come from the warm southland. On January 5 
they started. Six days later they were at Drake’s Bay, 





LOOKING FOR A HARBOR 


41 



Half-Dome from Glacier Point. 

A “cliff-like mountain” in the Yosemite Valley. 




42 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


A terrible 
storm 


where Drake had been crowned king, and where Cermeno 
had lost his cargo of beeswax and porcelain. 

The remainder of the voyage was made amid perils and 
storms. The two vessels became separated and were not re¬ 
united. The San Diego reached Cape Mendocino and then 
tried to turn back, but was driven farther north. The men 
were now so ill that only two were left who could climb the 
rigging. The waves were of appalling height. The ship 
pitched so hard that Vizcaino fell from his bed and broke an 
arm. 

At last he managed to turn back. By now the San Diego 
was like a hospital. So many were sick that there was 
scarcely any one left to raise or lower the anchor. When 
they reached port in Mexico they were “in the direst need, 
and in such trouble as Spaniards had never seen before, for 
the sick men were crying aloud” and no one was able to 
manage the sails. 

Thus ended Vizcaino’s brave and difficult voyage. His 
reports made Monterey Bay famous. Like Cabrillo and 
Ferrelo, he had failed to see the Bay of San Francisco. It 
still lay hidden behind the Golden Gate. 


CHAPTER IV 


A TIME OF WAITING 

The King of Spain now wished to have a settlement made A harbor 
at the fine bay which Vizcaino had explored, for he was afraid nee( ^ e( ^ 
that England or France might seize the country. And, be- 



Mission San Luis Rey. The Cloister. 

Named for Saint Louis the King, as distinguished from Saint Louis the 
Bishop (San Luis Obispo). 


sides, a harbor was needed for the Manila ships which every 
year sailed down the coast to Mexico. Other things pre¬ 
vented, however, and for more than a hundred and fifty 
years no Spaniard came to live here. 

43 





44 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



San Xavier Mission, Tucson, Arizona. 





















A TIME OF WAITING 


45 



California was a long, long way — nearly two thousand California 
miles — from the nearest settlements in Mexico. We may far away 
think of Mexico as a young boy, and California a shelf con¬ 
taining a golden apple, but too high for the boy to reach. 

He must wait and grow taller. And taller Mexico did grow. 

Little by little Spanish mines, cattle ranches, towns, and 


Mission San Juan Capistrano. 

We cannot value too highly the courage and devotion of the early mis¬ 
sionaries. Father Kino and Father Salvatierra were only two of the many 
who spent time spreading Christianity among the Indians. 

missions crept slowly northward up the western coast of 
Mexico, as well as into New Mexico and Texas. 

By the year 1700 settlements had reached Arizona, and Kino and 
Father Kino had founded a mission there. At the same time Salvatierra 
his friend, Father Salvatierra, was building missions in Lower 
California, where pearl fishing had been carried on for many 
years. The boy Mexico was indeed growing, and sometime 











46 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


would be able to reach California. This long time of wait¬ 
ing was a time of getting ready. 

Before going to Arizona Father Kino had worked among 
the poor Indians of Lower California, and he was always 
hoping to get back to them. He was a great missionary. 
He loved his Indian friends, and no task was too hard or too 
mean for him if it would help to make their lives better or 
happier. He taught them how to work, cared for them when 
they were sick, and defended them when wrongly accused. 
They loved him, too, and listened eagerly when he told them 



Mission San Fernando. 


of God, or explained to them his compass, his sun-dial, or 
the lens with which he started fires. 

He was fond of all the Indians, but he loved the little chil¬ 
dren best. Sometimes when he started on a journey, he 
was followed by a noisy troop of Indian boys running by his 
side, trying to keep up, and crying if left behind. Often two 
laughing boys might be seen perched proudly behind Father 
Kino on the haunches of his horse. It was fine sport and 
was enjoyed by all. 

Blue shells Father Kino was a great explorer also. In his day most 





A TIME OF WAITING 47 

people thought Lower California to be an island. He 
thought so, too. But one day when he was near the Gila 
River in Arizona the Indians gave him some blue shells. 
They were just like some he had seen on the western coast 


Mission San Luis Rey. 

Showing one of the Fathers standing under an arch of the cloister. 





48 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


of Lower California, but nowhere else. Now, since the In¬ 
dians of Arizona had these blue shells from the ocean, Kino 



Front of Santa Barbara Mission. 

This is probably the best known and the best preserved of California’s many 

missions. 


changed his mind, and concluded that there must be a way 
to go from Arizona to California by land. If that were true, 
of course California could not be an island. And if it were 














A TIME OF WAITING 


49 



true, he could drive cattle around the gulf for Father Sal- 
vatierra’s missions. 

To settle the question, Father Kino sent for Indians from A midnight 
all the country round. Chiefs and their braves, proud of the campfire 
summons, went in their best feathers and paint. A few fa¬ 
vorite boys were allowed 
to go, too. When they 
arrived, Kino held a mid¬ 
night council round a 
great campfire. The 
chiefs made long speeches, 
and all declared that 
the blue shells had come 
from the ocean to Ari¬ 
zona by land. 

Kino now made sev- Kino in 
eral more long journeys, California 
to see if his Indian 
friends were right. In 
one of them he crossed 
the Colorado River into 

Big Bell at San Gabriel Mission. . . 

Lower California, bitting 
in a large basket placed on a raft, he was towed across the 
wide stream by Indians, who laughed and splashed in great 
glee as they swam. He reached the head of the gulf, saw 
the sun rise above it, and concluded that Lower California was 
not an island but a peninsula. Of course he was correct. 







CHAPTER V 



Lava Flow, Mojave Desekt. 

This was one of the deserts the early settlers had to cross in coming from 
Mexico to California. 

nia and Arizona. There were hot deserts to cross and steep 
mountains to climb, in between, and Spain was too poor to 
send settlers to California unless forced by foreign danger. 

50 


PORTOLA AND SERRA 


The Rus- At last the great day came. For a long time after the days 

sian dan- 0 f Kino and Salvatierra, California had continued to wait. 
g er 

It was still far away from the settlements in Lower Califor- 



PORTOLA AND SERRA 


51 



A Mountain View. 

‘There were hot deserts to cross and steep mountains to climb.’ 












52 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


But when Russian fur traders crossed the Pacific from Si¬ 
beria, built forts and hunted sea-otters in Alaska, and began 
to sail down the coast toward California, Spain knew that 
she must wait no longer. She must send soldiers and mis¬ 
sionaries to the bays of San Diego and Monterey, to keep the 
Russians out. 

The man whose eyes were keenest, and who most clearly 
saw the need of haste, was Jose de Galvez, who had come 

from Spain to reform 
things in Mexico. At 
this time he was in Lower 
California, setting mat¬ 
ters to rights. When he 
looked around for help he 
saw three men close at 
hand. They were Portola, 
Serra, and Rivera. 

Portola was governor 
of Lower California, 
Father Serra was presi¬ 
dent of the missions, 
and Rivera was com¬ 
mander of 'the soldiers 
there. These three men 
were chosen to lead a 
great expedition to pro¬ 
tect California. With Father Serra were his two friends, 
Father Crespi and Father Palou, who had come with him 
from Spain thirty years before, and had worked with him 
for many years in the missions of Mexico. The companions 
were now separated, and it made them sad. Father Crespi 
went with Serra, but Father Palou remained behind to take 
Serra’s place. 



Jose de Galvez. 




PORTOLA AND SERRA 


53 



Some of the colonists came by water, around the penin- The sea 
sula and up the coast, in ships named the San Carlos and the voya S e 
San Antonio. A supply ship called the San Jose was lost 
in a storm and has never been heard of since. The other 
vessels lost their way, and it took the San Carlos one hundred 
and ten days to reach San Diego Bay. When it arrived, 


The Landing at San Diego. 

many persons had died and the sailors were too ill to lower 
the boats. 

The land parties fared better, though the way was long Rivera’s 
and hard. Captain Rivera went ahead. First he went party 
through the old missions and gathered all the horses, mules, 
cattle, and servants that could be spared. At times this 
was done “with a heavy hand,” as Serra says, for some 
of the missions were nearly stripped of their stock and 
their laborers. These supplies Rivera assembled at Ve- 
licata, a place fifty miles beyond the last mission to the 
north. 






54 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Mount Rubidoux, Riverside. 

Serra and his party camped here. 

mule drivers and about forty Indians from the old missions, 
who came along to help open the roads. The march to San 


The march 
to San 
Diego 


From Velicata Rivera set forth on March 24, 1769. With 
him went Father Crespi and twenty-five “ leather-jacket 
soldiers,” who wore leather shirts. There were also three 








PORTOLA AND SERRA 


55 



A Part of the Old Santa Fe Trail. 

Rivera and his party probably passed this very spot, but of course there was no road at that time. 




56 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Diego Bay lasted fifty-two days. For the first eight days 
they followed an old trail which a Jesuit missionary had 
opened three years before. Thereafter for forty-two days 
and a distance of over three hundred miles, the route had 
never been traveled by white men before. Some of the In¬ 
dians ran away. 

No water Sometimes there was no fuel even for a campfire, so barren 
was the desert. Part of the water had to be carried in bar- 


Old Dam at San Diego Mission. 

So serious had the lack of water been, and so desirable was a regular 
supply, that as early as 1769 the Indians, under the direction of the Fathers, 
built this dam to supply San Diego with water. 

rels and skin bags. Often the poor animals had to camp 
for the night without water. After the coast was reached 
there was enough water — too much, indeed, for then it 
often rained, and uncomfortable nights were spent in water- 
soaked clothing. Several nights were made dismal by the 
roaring of mountain lions. Much of the way was over rug- 





PORTOLA AND SERRA 


57 



ged mountains. The wild Indians did no damage, but some¬ 
times they threatened. 

One morning there was a great cheer in camp. From a Good news 
hill-top the scouts saw to the north the masts of two vessels 
lying at anchor in a harbor. They were the San Antonio 
and the San Carlos. Next day San Diego was reached. 


Cherokee Roses. 

Serra found all kinds of strange and beautiful flowers. 

There,, joy was mixed with sadness. The salutes of welcome 
and the fond embraces were mingled with the news of the 
deaths which had occurred in the sea party. 

Close behind Rivera followed Portola and Serra, with the Portolaand 
main herd of stock. Before he left, Father Serra went among Serra 
the old missions to gather gifts for the new ones in Califor¬ 
nia and to say good-by to his friends. The gifts were sent 
to Loreto, to be packed by Father Palou, and shipped by 



58 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The Rose 
of Castile 


The search 
for Monte¬ 
rey Bay 


San Fran¬ 
cisco Bay 
discovered 


water. Sometimes Father Serra slept in the open, at 
another time in a cave; then he would find welcome rest at 
one of the missions. His progress was made slow by a lame 
foot from which he had suffered for a year. 

From Velicata they set forth on May 15. Rivera had 
broken the trail, and the journey was quicker than his had 
been. To Serra the country was a wonderland of new In¬ 
dians and new plants. He was a lover of nature, and he 
was delighted with the flowers he saw, especially “ their 
queen, the Rose of Castile/’ On the last day of June the 
wayfarers reached San Diego. There, on July 16, Father 
Serra founded the first mission in our California. Near by 
the presidio or fort was built. California had been settled! 

Monterey Bay was still unprotected, and. Portola lost no 
time. With two missionaries, twenty-four soldiers, and one 
hundred loaded pack mules, he continued up the coast by 
land. On the way the Indians were friendly. At Los An¬ 
geles River the Spaniards felt a hard earthquake shock, so 
they named the stream there Earthquake River. After 
passing San Luis Obispo the way along the coast was blocked 
by rugged mountains. Father Crespi wrote in his diary 
that they were too steep, not only for men, “but also for 
goats and deer.” 

After struggling through these mountains they reached the 
beautiful Salinas Valley, near Soledad. Descending the 
river, they reached Monterey Bay. Vizcaino had told of a 
“fine harbor” there. But none could be seen. Portola, there¬ 
fore, continued up the coast and while looking for Monterey 
harbor discovered San Francisco Bay, which all former ex¬ 
plorers had missed. He now returned to San Diego. On 
the way back food was so scarce that the men had to kill a 
mule each day to keep from starving. 

Portola’s mistake regarding Monterey Bay gave him the 


PORTOLA AND SERRA 


59 



Reading Father Serra’s Records. 

These are now in San Gabriel Mission. 

good fortune to be the discoverer of the finest harbor on the 
Pacific coast of the Western Hemisphere. He was a great 
pathfinder. He had opened an entirely new trail from Veli- 
cata to San Francisco, a distance of a thousand miles. 










60 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



The March to Monterey. 

At the head of the column rode Portola, followed by his lieutenants 
and the priests. 


Monterey 

founded 

( 1770 ) 


Portola had returned to San Diego without having found 
the harbor at Monterey, but the next year he easily suc¬ 
ceeded. At the same time Father Serra came by water, 
and on June 3 the mission and presidio of San Carlos were 
founded near the oak where Vizcaino’s party had heard Mass. 
At last the task assigned to Vizcaino had been performed. 
The Bay of Monterey had been protected. Soon the mis¬ 
sion was moved to the beautiful valley of Carmel. Here 
the ruins of Carmel Mission still stand. (See page 39.) 







CHAPTER VI 

ANZA, TRAIL MAKER AND FOUNDER OF 
SAN FRANCISCO 

Two great problems now had to be solved. A land route Two 
from Sonora must be found, and settlers must be brought to P roblems 
protect the Bay of San Francisco. Supplies for California 
were very costly. They came by ship to Loreto on the pen¬ 
insula, thence by pack train twelve hundred miles to San 
Diego and to Monterey. The long journey wore the poor 
mules to skin and bones. A land route from Arizona would 
reduce the cost of supplies by opening a way for bringing 
stock and crops raised in Sonora. The stock, at least, could 
come on their own legs. 

The man to solve the problems was Juan Bautista de Anza, Anza’s first 
commander of Tubac, an Arizona fort. Born and reared on j° urne y 
the frontier, he was a soldier of experience. He had fought 
many battles, and four times had been wounded by the In¬ 
dians. He now offered to find a path over the mountains to 
California, and his offer was accepted by the Viceroy. 

In January, 1774, Anza set out from his post at Tubac 
with a company of thirty-four men, including two mission¬ 
aries. He had thirty-five mules laden with provisions, sixty- 
five cattle for food on the way, and one hundred and forty 
horses. The horses were poor animals, for his best ones had 
just been run off by the Apaches. Anza turned southwest, 
through the Pima missions, to get more horses at Caborca. 

This was the last Spanish settlement between Sonora and 
San Gabriel Mission, six or seven hundred miles distant. 

61 



62 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


A hard 
road 


Palma 

pleased 


Lost in the 
sand dunes 


The journey now was hard and lonely, but the soldiers 
whistled, laughed, and sang as they marched. From Ca- 
borca the trail led over the waterless “Devil’s Highway/’ 
where men and beasts suffered torture from thirst. Across 
this country the party went in two divisions, for if all the 
animals had reached the springs at the same time there would 
not have been water enough to go round. 

Having safely passed this difficult road, Anza reached the 
Gila River at Yuma. Here he made friends with Palma, 
chief of the Yumas, and presented him with a bright sash 
and a necklace of coins bearing the King’s image. The neck¬ 
lace so delighted the naked giant that “he neither had eyes 
enough to look at it, nor words with which to express his 
gratitude.” Palma and his men assisted Anza in crossing 
the river, carrying the packs and leading the horses, then 
guided him down the farther bank to a lake on the edge of 
the great Colorado Desert. Here the worst road of all began. 

Anza had two guides. One was Father Francisco Garces, 
who three years before had crossed the Colorado Desert, 
with only his faithful horse for a companion. The other 
was Sebastian, a queerly dressed Indian who had fled east 
across the Sierras from San Gabriel Mission to Sonora. 
Amid the great sand dunes both guides lost their way. For 
two weeks Anza wandered helplessly about. 

At last he encountered mountains of sand which the now 
jaded horses and mules would not even attempt to climb. 
When he turned back toward the lake his difficulties were not 
over; for the blowing sand had wiped out all trails. At 
last he reached the lake and there went into camp to rest 
and restore the men and the pack animals. The camp 
was thronged by Indians. The friars tried to convert the 
savages; and the soldiers, who had a fiddler among them, 
danced with the Indian girls. 


ANZA, FOUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 


63 



Yucca in Bloom. 

This is the kind of country through which Anza’s journey led him. 




64 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Success 


Anza’s 

route 


San Carlos 
Pass 


After a rest of two weeks Anza again set forth, leaving a 
part of his packs and some of his men with the Yumas. 
His faithful followers promised to go with him to the end, 
even if they should have to travel on foot. Anza now went 
southwestward, down the Colorado, and round the southern 
line of the sand dunes. Having crossed the desert, he ob¬ 
tained water and pasturage at the foot of the Sierras, which 
he followed northward till Sebastian found his former path¬ 
way through them. 

This trail of the first white man to cross the Sierras is his¬ 
toric. Anza entered the great range by way of San Felipe 
Creek and Borrego Valley. Then he toiled up Coyote 
Canon. The diary tells us, “The canon is formed by several 
very high, rocky mountains, or it would be better to say, 
by great heaps of rocks and stones of all sizes, which look as 
though they had been gathered and piled there, like the 
sweepings of the world.” The description is a good one. 

Continuing up the gorge, past starved Indians living in the 
cliffs and in caves “like rabbit warrens,” three days after 
leaving the desert Anza emerged through a rocky pass into 
Cahuilla Valley, girlhood home of Ramona, in Helen Hunt 
Jackson’s story. The desert now gave way to mountain 
verdure. “At this very place,” says Anza, “there is a gate¬ 
way which I named Royal Pass of San Carlos. From it are 
seen some most beautiful valleys, very green and flower 
strewn; snowy mountains with live oaks and other trees na¬ 
tive to cold lands. The waters, too, are divided, some run¬ 
ning on this side to the gulf, and others to the Philippine 
Ocean.” 

The pass or gateway now opens right into the horse corral 
of Mr. Fred Clark, a rancher who lives on the historic old 
trail. In the rocks above the pass smoky walled old cliff 
dwellings are still to be seen. 


ANZA, FOUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 


65 



San Gabriel Mission. 

This was the goal of Anza’s journey and it was also the Mission from which 
the guide Sebastian had fled. 





66 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


At San 
Gabriel 
Mission 



Anza crossed the plateau, a distance of fifteen or twenty 
miles, and, “little hindered by falling snow on the mountains, 
which turned to mist in the valley,” descended Bautista 


Old Stairway at San Gabriel Mission. 


Canon and camped on San Jacinto River, near the present 
town of San Jacinto. “ A few days later, as the southern Cali- 





ANZA, FOUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 


67 


fornia sunset blazed upon the peaks, Anza knocked at the 
gates of San Gabriel Mission, near the future Los Angeles.” 

His march had already covered some seven hundred miles. 

But he went on to Monterey and returned from there to 
Tubac over the trail which he had opened, through the pass 
of San Carlos. 

The Golden Gate could now be protected. Anza went to Anza’s 
Mexico City to confer with the Viceroy. Then, on October colony 
23, 1775, he led out from Tubac the first colony destined for 
San Francisco. Thrilling as was Anza’s first march across 
desert and mountain, his second journey, at the head of the 
colony which founded the great city at the Golden Gate, is 
made more so by the interesting details written down in the 
diaries of the commander and the missionaries. The party 
comprised soldiers, friars, and thirty families — in all two 
hundred and forty persons. There were more than thirty 
women, and one hundred thirty-six boys and girls. Three 
more were born on the way and became first natives of Cali¬ 
fornia. 

What a wonderland the new country must have seemed to 
the older boys and girls, and what tales of the journey they 
must have told in after years to their children and grand¬ 
children. Most of the colonists were very poor, so payment 
was made in advance. It was given in the form of clothing 
and outfit because, if paid in money, they would immedi¬ 
ately gamble it all away. 

“ The list of essentials included — besides arms, horses, What they 
mules, cattle, and rations — shirts, underwear, jackets, carned 
breeches, hose, buckskin boots and buttoned shoes, caps, 
hats, and handkerchiefs for the men, also ribbons for their 
hats and their hair; for the women, chemises, petticoats, 
jackets, shoes, stockings, hats, rebozos and ribbons; and the 
items of children’s needs also concluded with ribbons. Spurs, 


68 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



bridle and bit, saddle and saddle-cushion, and a leathern 
jacket ( cuera ) of seven thicknesses, were a few more of each 
man’s requirements. And the dole of each family seems to 
have included all inventions known at the time, from frying 


pans to blank books. Two hundred head of cattle were 
taken to stock California.” 

The party moved along in military order, like a small army 
on the march. Father Font describes the start and the 
method of travel, as follows: 


Anza’s Party Filing through a Pass. 






69 


ANZA, FOUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 





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70 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


How they 
traveled 


Songs and 
prayers 


How camp 
looked 


“At a suitable hour, the horses and mules were brought 
up and each person went out to take his animals. The 
muleteers took the mules, and the soldiers and servants the 
horses for themselves and their families. While they packed 
and saddled, I usually said Mass, as there was enough time 
for that. When the animals were ready to start, the com¬ 
mander said ‘Mount!’ We all mounted our horses and the 
march began. The line was formed in this manner: 

“In front went four soldiers to spy out the road. The 
commander then followed, at the head of the vanguard. I 
came next. After me followed the men, women, and chil¬ 
dren, with the soldiers who went to escort and take care of 
their families. Then came the rear guard and the Lieuten¬ 
ant [Moraga]. Behind, generally, came the pack animals, 
and after them the loose horses and last of all the cattle. 
Altogether we formed a very long line. 

“As soon as we began the march, I sang the Hymn of 
Praise, and all the people responded. This was done on 
every day of the march. As soon as the camping place was 
reached, after all the people had alighted, the lieutenant 
went to report to the commander whether all had arrived, 
or whether anything had been left behind, so that he might 
order what was to be done. At night, each family recited 
the Rosary in their huts, and at the end they sang the Hymn 
of Praise or.something else. Each family recited and sang in 
its own way, producing by this variety a very pleasing effect. 

“As there was a very large number of people, when we 
halted the camp resembled a town, with the huts made by 
the soldiers with their cloaks, blankets and branches of trees, 
and especially with the field tents. Of these there were 
thirteen — nine for the soldiers, one for the lieutenant, one 
for Fathers Garces and Tomas, one for me, and one large 
round tent for the commander.” 


ANZA, FOUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 71 



Riverside Seen from Mount Rubidoux. 








72 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Chief 
Palma 
again made 
happy 


i 

Across the 
desert 


A cheerful 
reunion 


The Gila River was reached late in November. Six days 
were spent at the Yuma village, because of illness among the 
women, and to establish Fathers Garces and Eixarch among 
their chosen flock. Chief Palma was again made happy by 
the gift of a bright-colored Spanish military costume. He 
put it on and strutted about like a peacock. Anza ordered 
a cabin erected for the friars and stocked it with pro¬ 
visions. Palma aided in everything, with all the weight of 
his authority. Such was the beginning of white settlement 
at Yuma. 

Anza now resumed his journey. Some of his horses had 
died from the cold, and eleven persons were sick, but he did 
not falter. At Santa Olaya Lake — where he had camped 
the previous year — he divided his expedition into three 
parts. They marched on different days, in order to save the 
scant water holes in the desert country ahead. 

Leading the first detachment in person, to encourage the 
rest and prepare the way, Anza struck out straight ahead 
across the desert. In three days he reached the wells of 
Santa Rosa at the foot of the mountains, and, two days 
later, camped near Sebastian’s Pass into the Sierras. Here 
he awaited the remainder of his party. 

When they came up, they were ill from cold and thirst. 
Lieutenant Moraga had become deaf from exposure. The 
two hundred cattle had been without water for four days, 
and the horses were badly worn. Just before leaving Tubac 
the Apaches had stolen fifteen hundred head. Most of the 
emigrants had come without change of mounts, in some cases 
with a soldier and two or three children on a single horse. 
Henceforth some had to go on foot. But human nature is 
cheerful, and the reunion at San Sebastian was celebrated 
with a jolly dance. The spirit of mirth cannot be killed by 
hardships. 



ANZA, POUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 73 

Anza’s cavalcade now crossed the Sierras by the path he Christmas 
had discovered on his former journey. The snow-covered ev f * n 
mountains extended a chilly reception to the shivering col¬ 
onists, who came from the warm climate of Sonora and Sina¬ 
loa. The women wept at the sight of the snow, but Anza 
cheered them on. In the deep canon, on Christmas eve, a 
child was born, the third since the departure from Tubac. 


County Court House at Riverside. 

When Anza crossed the river here he little dreamed of anything like this. 

On the way up the trail over ninety head of cattle died from 
cold and hardship. 

Just at San Carlos Pass a severe earthquake shock spread 
excitement among the weary band. The Indians here re¬ 
membered Anza and called him Tomiar, “The Man.” 
Where Riverside now stands An«a crossed the Santa Ana 
River on the bridge built by himself two years before. Three 
days after New Year’s he reached San Gabriel, where the 







74 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


V 

San Fran¬ 
cisco 
founded 


Two lib¬ 
erty bells 


mission bells were rung in joyous thanksgiving. Two 
months later the colonists reached Monterey. 

Anza explored the shores of the Golden Gate and chose 
sites for a presidio and a mission. Then he returned to So¬ 
nora. When he left, his colonists wept, for he had been to 
them like a father. His march of more than a thousand 
miles was one of the longest overland migrations of a colony 
in North American history, and was remarkable for its suc¬ 
cess. 

The presidio and mission of San Francisco were estab¬ 
lished late in 1776. Next year Lieutenant Moraga founded 
San Jose, some fifty miles to the south, close to the mission 
of Santa Clara. Soon a second body of colonists came over 
Portola’s route and founded Los Angeles (1781). Next year 
saw the founding of Santa Barbara. Thus Spain had made 
good her hold on California at four points, San Diego, Santa 
Barbara, Monterey, and San Francisco. 

While Anza explored San Francisco Bay, the Liberty Bell 
at Philadelphia, three thousand miles away, proclaimed the 
signing of the Declaration of Independence. A few years 
later Father Plidalgo in Mexico rang out the liberty bell that 
freed California from Spanish rule. The descendants of 
Anza’s colonists still live in California. The cities of Oakland 
and Berkeley and the State University stand on the great 
ranch granted to one of the families. The rosiest dreams of 
these founders have more than come true. 



ANZA, FOUNDER OF SAN FRANCISCO 75 



Garden of Santa Barbara Mission. 




CHAPTER VII 


Death of 
Crespi and 
Serra 


OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN DAYS 

In 1782 Father Crespi died, at the mission of San Carlos 
where he had worked. Two years later Father Serra also 
died, and was buried beside his friend. Father Palou con- 



From The Colonization of North America, by Bolton and Marshall. Used by 
permission of The Macmillan Company, publishers. 


tinued to toil on at the mission of San Francisco, where he 
wrote a book telling about the great work of Father Serra 
and his companions. Beautiful indeed, had been the life¬ 
long friendship of these three men. 

76 




OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN DAYS 


77 



Brother Hugolinus at the Door of Santa Barbara Mission. 


Before Father Serra died he and his companions founded 
six more missions . 1 In after years others were built, until the 

1 These were San Antonio (1771), San Luis Obispo (1772), San Ga¬ 
briel (1772), San Juan Capistrano (1775), Santa Clara (1777), and 
San Buenaventuro (1782). 


A great 
chain of 
missions 





78 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


number reached twenty-one, and until the chain extended 
from San Diego to Sonoma . 1 

Pueblos A few Spanish towns or 'pueblos grew up, as at San Jose, 
Los-Angeles, and Santa Cruz. Ranches and country homes 
were also established. Before the end of Spanish days ex- 



Kitchen at Mission San Miguel,. 


plorations were made over the mountains into the San Joa¬ 
quin and Sacramento valleys. But the missions founded by 
the great Serra and his noble companions and successors 
were the glory of Spanish California. 

1 The other missions were Santa Barbara (1786), Concepcion (1787), 
Santa Cruz (1791), Soleclad (1791), San Jose (1791), San Juan Bautista 
(1797), San Miguel (1797), San Luis Rey (1798), Santa Inez (1804), San 
Rafael (1817), and San Francisco Solano (1823). Two other missions, 
founded in 1780 on the Colorado River, at the request of Chief Palma, 
were destroyed during the Indian revolt, in 1781, four missionaries and 
numerous other Spaniards being killed. 






; 


OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN DAYS 


79 





Tower of San Juan Capistrano Mission. 









80 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Life at the At these missions the wild Indians were gathered into vil- 
missions Jages. There they were taught the Christian faith, and how 
to do useful things in the white man’s way. The women 
learned housework, spinning, weaving, and sewing. The 
men learned to herd cattle, shear sheep, till farms, and erect 
The buildings. Under the direction of the missionaries, churches 

churches a nd g ne wor kshops we re built. Some of them are still stand- 


Mission San Juan Bautista. 

ing, to remind us of the care and toil of these simple Indians 
and their teachers. 

The mis- The mission farms and ranches prospered, raising many 
ranches thousands of bushels of grain, and great herds of cattle, 
horses, and other stock. Each mission was usually in charge 
of two friars and guarded by a few soldiers. The friars 








OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN DAYS 


81 



treated the Indians kindly, as if they were children. But 
sometimes the Indians ran away, because they did not like 
to work, and preferred the free life of the mountains and 
valleys. 

Just as the English colonies separated from England, so 
the Spanish colonies won their freedom from Spain. Father 
Hidalgo rang the Mexican liberty bell in 1810. After ten 
long, hard years of war, Mexico became independent, and for 
a time California was a Mexican province. It was in these 


The “California Mode” of Catching Cattle, 
as It Used to Be Called. 

Mexican days that the Spanish settlers had the finest ranches 
and country houses. But it was in these days, too, that the 
missions were taken away from the missionaries. When 
this was done, the mission lands were seized by the settlers, 
the buildings went into decay, and most of the Indians re¬ 
turned to their wild ways. 

The Californians now lived on their ranches in ease and 
abundance. Their families were surprisingly large, there 


California 

under 

Mexico 


Life on the 
ranches 





82 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Fine horse¬ 
men 


The lasso 


Amuse¬ 

ments 


being often a dozen or fifteen children. Cattle were raised 
by tens of thousands, and trade in hides and tallow became 
the principal business. Horses ran wild in such numbers 
that they sometimes had to be killed, or driven away over 
the mountains. “They were as tall as the English race 
horse and had the speed and endurance of the Arabian. 
Good riding horses were accustomed to gallop from twelve 
to fifteen hours a day without food or rest.” The Califor¬ 
nians were thought to be the best horsemen in the world. 

The cavalryman wore a gayly colored blue jacket, with 
bright red cuffs and collar; his blue velvet pantaloons were 
buttoned down the sides, but were left unbuttoned at the 
knees to show his white stockings; his feet were adorned 
with deerskin gaiters, and his head with broad brimmed hat, 
behind which showed his black hair in a queue. 

The Californian seldom rode without his lasso, or lariat, 
with which he showed astounding dexterity, and which he 
used for a great variety of purposes. The principal use made 
of it by the Californians was in catching horses and cattle, 
but they even employed it for hauling wood. Without dis¬ 
mounting they would throw the rope around a log and drag 
it to the house. 

Among the Californians there was much visiting and merry¬ 
making. They were fond of sports. Some of the games 
were not altogether gentle. One amusement was to watch 
a bull and a bear in combat. To catch the bear three or 
four horsemen would go to some near-by forest and kill a 
calf or ox for bait. When the bear came to eat the bait the 
horsemen rode from their hiding place and lassoed him, 
tied him, and dragged him to the arena. There he was 
turned loose in a pen with a savage bull. At first the bull 
usually had the advantage. But, watching his chance, the 
bear would seize the angry animal by the nose, then by his 


OLD SPANISH AND MEXICAN DAYS 


83 



Monterey. The First Theater in California. 

lolling tongue, throw him to the ground, and quickly dis¬ 
patch him. There were also bullfights, in which the bull’s 
antagonist was not a poor mistreated bear, but a gayly dressed 
Californian armed with sword and cape, in true Castilian 
style. 





CHAPTER VIII 



PARADISE INVADED 


Other peo¬ 
ple come to 
California 


Other races of men now began to come to California, and 
the Spaniards were no longer left in sole possession of their 
paradise. It had been settled by Spain to keep the Russians 


A Scene on Russian River. 

out. But the Russians kept coming down the coast, and in 
1812 they built a trading post called Fort Ross. The stream 
near which it stood is still called Russian River. Land was 
cheap in those days and the site was bought from the Indi¬ 
ans for “ three blankets, three pairs of breeches, two axes, 

84 . 




PARADISE INVADED 


85 


three hoes, and some beads.” The Mexican officials pro¬ 
tested against the intruders, but'in vain. 

Kuskof, the founder, brought a colony of ninety-five Rus¬ 
sians, eighty Alaskan Indians as hunters, and forty canoes 
called bidarkas. The fort was protected by ten cannons. 
The Russian hunters secured great numbers of sea-otter 
skins from San Francisco Bay and other places along the 
coast. At the Farallones, where they had a station, it is 



said they obtained eighty thousand skins in one season. For 
a time the Russians purchased supplies of the California 
missions, but soon they opened farms and raised their own 
provisions. 

From the north these Russians had come. Around the 
Horn came American traders from Boston and other eastern 
cities. On the California coast they gathered furs, bought 
tallow and hides, traded at the missions, and sailed away to 


The 

Russians 


American 

traders 




86 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


British fur 
traders 


The Amer¬ 
ican trap¬ 
pers 


The march 
across the 
continent 


Jedediah 

Smith 


China. Of such voyages Richard H. Dana tells us in his 
interesting book called “Two Years before the Mast.” 

British fur traders also came to California. From Hud¬ 
son’s Bay they made their way across Canada, and estab¬ 
lished posts in Oregon. From there they sent hunting par¬ 
ties south as far as the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. 
One of the most famous of these traders was Peter Skene 
Ogden, for whom the city of Ogden in Utah is named. He 
married Julia, daughter of a Flathead chief, having bought 
her for fifty ponies. When he made his expeditions she rode 
by his side. 

Finally, across the Sierras came the American hunters. 
Ever since the founding of Jamestown and Plymouth the 
English people in America had been “ going west.” Bear and 
bison, forest and Indian, Frenchman and Spaniard, all gave 
way to their onward march; nor were they stopped by rug¬ 
ged mountain or swollen stream. Trapper and explorer, 
lumberman and miner, cowboy and farmer, on they came, 
slowly at times, and again by great leaps and bounds. 

At the head of the procession were the hunters and trap¬ 
pers. Crossing the Atlantic Slope, they threaded the passes 
of the Allegheny Mountains, poured forth into Tennessee, and 
then crossed the Mississippi. The way was now obstructed 
in the southwest by the Spaniards, and in the northwest by 
the British fur traders. But like a great wedge the Ameri¬ 
can trappers pushed in between them. The center from 
which most of them started was St. Louis, then the great 
fur market. From there they made their way to Oregon, 
to the Utah Basin, and to New Mexico. Finally they found 
the passes of the Sierras and entered California. 

First among the American trappers known to have reached 
California overland was Jedediah Smith. Coming through 
the Rocky Mountains, he and his companions spent some 


PARADISE INVADED 


87 



View of the High Sierras. 

It was over these mountains that the hardy traders and trappers had to make their way. 




88 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


At San 
Gabriel 
Mission 


time trapping near Great Salt Lake. But in the summer of 
1826 he decided to go further west, to look for new hunting 
grounds. With a party of fifteen men he went southwest to 
the Mojave villages on the Colorado, near the present town 
of Needles. The Indians here treated Smith and his men 



Grape Vine at San Gabriel Planted by the Spanish Fathers. 


well, provided them with food, and with horses and two 
guides. 

Crossing the Mojave Desert, in December all sixteen men 
reached San Gabriel Mission, near Los Angeles, carrying 
forty beaver skins and many traps. The Spaniards treated 
them well, but their guns were taken away from them, and 
Smith was sent to San Diego before the governor. Smith 
showed his passports, and explained that his party, after 
crossing the deserts, had been unable to get back for lack of 




PARADISE INVADED 


89 


food and water. Fortunately some other Americans, who At San 
had come by water to trade, were at San Diego. They Dieg0 



Bell Tower of San Gabriel Mission. 


explained that Smith’s intentions were good. After taking 
away his passports the governor let Smith leave the country. 






90 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Across the 
Sierras in 
summer 


Leaving San Diego, Smith went to San Bernardino. From 
there he went north for about three hundred miles, and at¬ 
tempted to cross the Sierras eastward; but five horses died 
of hunger, and he was forced to return to the valley until the 
snow melted. Continuing north, he reached the foothills 
near Modesto. 

Leaving all but two companions behind, in May (1827), 
Smith'again set out to cross the mountains. He took seven 



University Peak, High Sierras. 

Smith and his companions encountered mountains like these, but they 
kept bravely on. 


horses and two pack mules. Eight days were spent in get¬ 
ting across. The snow was from four to eight feet deep, and 
two horses and a mule died. While they were crossing the 
great deserts they often went two days without water, and 




PARADISE INVADED 


91 





Entrance to San Diego Harbor. 

This is where the American traders put in when they came by water. 






92 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



were forced to eat the flesh of horses. At the end of twenty 
days they reached Great Salt Lake, having left only one horse 


Natural Palms. 

This was one of the scenes between Santa Fe and Los Angeles. 


and one mule. This was a remarkable journey to be made 
by three lone men. 



PARADISE INVADED 


93 


Having found a trail over the mountains, Smith at once 
returned to California with a party of eight men. Gather¬ 
ing up some of the men he had left here, he went to Monterey. 
There he secured permission to go up the coast to Oregon, 
and to buy horses and mules for the journey, but he must 
go at once and never return. 

Smith sailed from Monterey to San Francisco, and then 
he and his men journeyed north by land, trapping and hunt¬ 
ing as they went. They got out of California safely, but in 
Oregon, when attempting to ford a river, they were attacked 
by Indians, who killed fifteen men and took all their goods 
and furs. Smith and two companions escaped, and went to 
Fort Vancouver, a British fur trading post on the Columbia 
River commanded by Dr. John McLoughlin, “the white- 
haired chief.” From there a party was sent back to recover 
the furs. 

But Smith crossed the mountains through Oregon, and re¬ 
turned to Utah. About two years later he was killed by 
Indians near the Arkansas River. Smith is to be remem¬ 
bered as the first American known to have reached Cali¬ 
fornia overland, and the first man known to have explored 
the entire coast as far as Oregon. 

Other parties of trappers and traders came after Smith, 
and soon there was a regular caravan trade between Santa 
Fe and Los Angeles. American traders brought goods, ex¬ 
changed them for California mules, and took the mules in 
droves to St. Louis. 

After the trappers and traders, came the settlers. News 
of California’s fine climate and rich soil was carried back 
east, and about 1840 parties of settlers began to come over¬ 
land, by way of Oregon, across the Sierras, and by way of 
Santa Fe and Anza’s trail, braving countless dangers on 
the trip. 


Return to 
California 


Up the 
coast to 
Oregon 


What 
Smith had 
accom¬ 
plished 


Caravan 

trade 


The com¬ 
ing of 
American 
settlers 


94 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Captain 

Sutter 


His fort at 
Sacra¬ 
mento 


Life in 

New 

Helvetia 



One of the most noted of the early American settlers was 
Captain Sutter. Born in Switzerland, he went to Missouri 

and became an American 
citizen. Then he came 
to California and ob¬ 
tained a large grant of 
land in the Sacramento 
Valley. When the Rus¬ 
sians left F ort Ross (1840) 
he bought their stock, 
tools, and cannons, and 
moved them to his ranch. 
Where Sacramento now 
stands he built a fort, 
and opened a great farm 
and trading post. He 
called his estate New 
Helvetia. 

Most of the work on 
the farm was done by 
the Indians, who were 
very obedient to Captain 
Sutter. The men culti¬ 
vated the fields, dug 
ditches, and made bricks for the fort. The children watered 
the gardens, and were taught to make cloth. Captain Sutter 
also had many Americans in his employ, and others settled 
near him. He soon became so independent that the Mexi¬ 
can officials were alarmed, but they were powerless to 
interfere. 


John A. Sutter. 






CHAPTER IX 


FREMONT AND THE AMERICAN FLAG 



While traders, trappers, and settlers were making their 
way to Oregon and California over unmapped trails, the 
American government began to send men to make maps and 

report on the country. 
The most famous of 
those who came to Cali¬ 
fornia for this purpose 
was John C. Fremont. 

He was first sent to 
map the Oregon Trail as 
far as South Pass, the 
gap in the Rockies by 
which the emigrants en¬ 
tered Utah. With him 
he brought old French 
trappers who knew the 
trail; but his principal 
guide was Kit Carson, 
who was already famous 
in the west, and had been 
in California. Coming 
beyond the pass, Fremont 
climbed and explored the mountain in Wyoming which still 
bears his name — Fremont’s Peak. 

Next year he returned to continue his explorations. In 
St. Louis he made preparations for an eight months’ journey. 
His party consisted of about forty men, Kit Carson again 

95 


John C. Fremont. 


John C. 
Fremont 


First jour¬ 
ney, 1842 


Second 

journey, 

1843 





96 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Looking ' 
for a fabled 
river 



coming as guide. Besides twelve carts and a wagon to carry 
the baggage, they brought a twelve-pounder cannon. 

After reaching Oregon, Fremont set out in November to 
return by a new route. He had heard of Klamath Lake; of 

a lake called Mary, in 
the Utah Basin; and 
of a river called Buena¬ 
ventura, thought to 
flow from the basin 
into San Francisco 
Bay. These he wished 
to see. It was a bold 
enterprise to under¬ 
take at the opening of 
winter, but not too 
daring for Fremont. 
With him he took 
twenty-five persons, 
some of them mere 
boys, but all full of 
courage. They had 
one hundred and four 
mules and horses and 
drove a herd of cattle 
for food. They had already abandoned the wagons, but 
they still had the cannon. 

Fremont started south and soon reached Klamath Marsh. 
Seeing the smoke of an Indian village, and thinking the na¬ 
tives hostile, he fired the cannon to frighten them. This 
was the first time the cannon had been shot since leaving St. 
Louis. Turning eastward, Fremont now sought Mary Lake 
in southern Oregon. Failing to find it, he turned south into 
Nevada to look for the fabled Buenaventura River. He 


General Kearny. 
See page 103. 





FREMONT AND THE AMERICAN FLAG 97 



Mountains and Forests Fremont Had to Cross. 

Some of the cones seen in the picture are over a foot long and weigh over ten pounds. 













98 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


California 

Ho! 


Making a 
trail 


and Carson went ahead. Whenever they reached a new 
stream Carson looked for beaver-gnawed trees, for he thought 
he would find them only on streams flowing into the ocean. 

When they reached Carson River, the mules and horses 
were in bad condition. Their feet were so cut by the rocks 

that many were lame. 
There was no more iron 
to make horseshoe nails, 
and they could not be 
shod, and Fremont knew 
that they would be un¬ 
able to cross the rough 
Rockies. So he changed 
his plans and decided 
to find a pass in the 
Sierras, and come to 
California. Carson had 
told the men of its beau¬ 
ties, and they hailed the 
decision with joy. 

Everybody now set to 
work to make prepara¬ 
tions. Leggins, mocca¬ 
sins, and clothing were 
all repaired. The Washo Indian guide, Melo, was given a 
suit of “green, blue, and scarlet.” At Walker River they 
plunged into the mountains to find a pass. As they toiled 
up the steep slopes, it became necessary to abandon the 
cannon. Years later it was found near Aurora. 

Fremont and Carson went ahead with the guide to find 
the trails. The snow was so deep that it was necessary to 
make a path for the animals, cutting footholes and beating 
down the snow with mauls. In their weakened condition 





FREMONT AND THE AMERICAN FLAG 


99 



Lake Tahoe. 

The highest large lake in the United States. Fremont passed this on St. Valentine’s Day. 




A solemn 
scene 



100 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

the mules could no longer carry the packs. Sleds were there¬ 
fore made, and the baggage hauled by the men, the poor 
animals being driven behind. Many of them lost their foot¬ 
ing, rolled down the cliffs, and were killed. Among these 
was one carrying the pack of botanical specimens collected 
during a journey of two thousand miles. 

Food now became very scarce. They had neither tallow 
nor grease of any kind, and they suffered greatly for lack of 


From an old print. 

salt. It became necessary to kill the dogs, and before the 
crossing was finished several mules also were killed and eaten. 

One night, when Fremont and a few others were ahead 
exploring, they camped without a tent under a huge pine 
tree. Here an old Indian came and made them a long speech, 
telling them they could never reach the valley. This so 
frightened a Chinook Indian, from Oregon, that he hid his 
head under a blanket and gave himself up for lost. Of this 
scene Fremont wrote in his journal: “Seated around the 





FREMONT AND THE AMERICAN FLAG 101 

tree, the fire illuminating the rocks and the tall boles of the 
pines round about, and the old Indian haranguing, we pre¬ 
sented a group of very serious faces.” That night Melo, 
the guide, ran away with his gay suit and was never seen 
again. 

But Fremont kept on. On February 6, from a high peak, 
he was rewarded with his first view of the California Valley, 


Raising the American Flag at Monterey. 

On July 7, 1846, Commodore John Drake Sloat took possession of Cali¬ 
fornia for the United States. 

which Carson recognized. On the 14th Fremont beheld 
Lake Tahoe on his right. Two days later, scouting ahead, 
he reached a creek flowing west. On February 20, the whole 
caravan camped on the summit, and the overjoyed men 
climbed the near-by peaks to feast their eyes on the Promised 
Land. 

There were still great difficulties, for the descent was nearly 
as hard as the ascent. Hunger increased. Horses gave out, 
and men became insane with suffering. But as they de- 


The Prom¬ 
ised Land 


Hardships 

still 




102 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The jour¬ 
ney home 


scended the American River they were cheered on with views 
of the valley, beautiful sunsets, and the gleam of Indian 
fires by the distant marshes of Suisun. They now began to 
see game, live oak trees, and wild flowers. At last they 
reached the level valley of the American River, and arrived 
at Sutter’s Fort, where there was food and rest. 

They presented a sorry picture. They were all on foot, 
each man weak and thin, leading a horse or mule as weak and 



The Original Bear Flag. 

Made by Todd at Sonoma, June 14, 1846, destroyed in the San Francisco 

fire. 


thin as himself. Out of the sixty-seven horses and mules 
with which they started over the Sierras, only thirty-three 
reached the Sacramento, and they were unfit to ride. After 
remaining at Sutter’s Fort twelve days, buying a new outfit 
of animals and supplies, Fremont set out for home with nine¬ 
teen men. Instead of trying to go east across .the Sierras, 
he went down the Sacramento, up the San Joaquin, over the 
Tehachapi Pass, across the Mojave Desert to the Old Span¬ 
ish Trail, and then back to Utah and St. Louis. 









FREMONT AND THE AMERICAN FLAG 103 

Fremont had been the first to cross the Sierras in winter. 
He soon returned to California and became a prominent 
man. 

Before the war between the United States and Mexico 
there were already several hundred Americans living in Cali¬ 
fornia. To the Spanish people these Americans were not 
altogether welcome, and in June, 1846, when Fremont was 
near, trouble occurred. A party of Americans captured 



Flag of the Sonoma Troop, California Battalion. 
Destroyed in the San Francisco fire. 


Sonoma, and raised the “Bear Flag,” as a sign of independ¬ 
ence. 

But revolt by the American settlers was made unneces¬ 
sary by the war with Mexico, which had already begun. 
On July 7, Commodore Sloat captured Monterey; two days 
later the United States flag was raised in San Francisco; 
and in August, Stockton and Fremont took Los Angeles. 
In December, Kearny came overland from New Mexico 
and helped to complete the conquest. California now be¬ 
came a part of the United States, and in 1848 was formally 
ceded by Mexico. 


The Bear 
Flag, 1846 


California 
ceded to 
the United 
States, 

1848 




CHAPTER X 



GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 

California When California was added to the United States few 
far away p e0 pl e in the east knew or cared about the land. The few 
who did know were either very happy or very bitter over it. 
This was because in the eastern states California was thought 


Monterey in the Forties. 

From an old print. 

to be of importance mainly in relation to the question of 
slavery. Some people, from the south, wanted more terri¬ 
tory in which to open cotton plantations, and others, from 
the north, wished to restrict slavery to the old southern 
states where it already existed. 

104 










GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 


105 



El Capitan, Yosemite Valley. 

The scenic glories of California were as yet practically unknown. 




106 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



But a great many people, although they had heard the 
name “California” and knew that it was once a part of Mex¬ 
ico, had to look in their children’s school geographies to 
find out just where California was located. When the news 
came that the United States had won this land from Mexico, 
men who could tell about it went about from place to place 
making speeches, and were well paid for their lectures. 


A Modern Residence. 

Seventy-five years ago the houses were exceedingly crude. 

A few men understood the value of California, but most of 
the people thought it was too far away to be of much use. 
In 1848 they did not need more land to live on, since the 
great Mississippi Valley was still thinly settled. Except in 
the states of Missouri and Louisiana, and the recently added 
state of Texas, few cities and farms were to be seen much far¬ 
ther west than the Mississippi River, 





GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 


107 


Iowa, for example, had been made a state in 1847, and its 
capital had been placed at Iowa City, in the center of the 
state, but nearly all the people lived along the river fringe of 
the eastern boundary. Even Iowa was thought to be far 
away from the eastern states. People who moved out to 
settle there could go by railroad only as far as Buffalo, in 
New York State. Thence they went by lake steamboats to 
Chicago, and then by wagons across the country. When 
they left home, they said “Good-by” to old friends as if 
forever, feeling that they were colonists setting out to build 
a new country, and never expecting to see the mother land 
again. 

If this was the feeling about Iowa, it was much more the 
case with California, and not many people were daring 
enough to take the long journey. But in 1848 a man named 
James Marshall discovered gold. That simple event 
changed everything for the state, and indeed for the whole 
United States. Before this time there had been very little 
gold mined in our country, and the new discovery was one 
of the greatest importance. 

Six years earlier some gold had been found in Los Angeles 
County, but since California was then a province of Mexico, 
the people of the United States paid no attention to it. But 
now, just after the people of the east heard that California 
was ours, they also learned that gold, the basis of all money 
systems, and one of the most precious of metals, could be 
had in this new land if men were but bold enough to go so 
far and dig in the earth. And bold men were not lacking. 

Marshall’s discovery, then, was important. And it was a 
pure accident, for it came about in this way. A few Ameri¬ 
cans, perhaps about two thousand, men of the adventure 
loving type, had come into California as soon as they learned 
that the Mexican War was over, and another thousand or 


Gold found 
in 1848 


A great 
change 
wrought 


Marshall’s 

discovery 


108 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



The saw¬ 
mill at 
Coloma 


so had preceded them. They had come to try their luck 
as farmers, or hunters, or trappers, and they brought re¬ 
ports that others would follow them. 

Captain Sutter, who was looking ahead to trade with these 
newcomers, decided that there was one thing they would 


Sutter’s Mill. 
From an old print. 


certainly need — lumber, with which to build houses. So 
he went into partnership with James Marshall, a New Jer¬ 
sey man who had been in California for three years, and a 
plan was .made to build a saw-mill on the American River, 
near what is now Coloma. A road, forty-five miles long, 
was marked out and partly built from Sutter’s store to the 
site, and on January 23, 1848, the mill was far enough along 






GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 109 

to make a test of the mill race to see if it would carry the 
water needed. 

All night the water ran, carrying off loose dirt that had 
gathered during the building, and in the morning Marshall 
went to see if everything was all right before completing the 
saw-mill. As he walked along the race, looking at the clean 
new bed, he saw some shiny, glittering particles, and stopped 
to pick them up. This was on January 24. The next day 



San Francisco before the Gold Rush. 
From an old print. 


he found more of these yellow particles. He must have sus¬ 
pected that they might be gold, but he was not much excited 
by his discovery, and he let three days pass before he went 
to Sutter’s Fort and told his partner what he had found. 

Sutter was at once interested. He was a shrewd man, Sutter dis- 
who saw that if gold were really found in paying quantity it a PP ointed 
would make a great difference in all the plans he had made, 
for he had hoped to become the chief merchant of a settled 





no 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The news 
spreads in 
California 


Sam Bran- 
nan swings 
his hat 


Sailors and 
jailers 


The rush to 
California 


farming community. In fact, Sutter was afraid that all his 
plans would be upset. But Marshall had talked about his 
discovery to the men working on the mill, and there was 
little chance of keeping it secret, if the metal found was of 
real gold. Sutter consulted his cyclopedia. Following its 
instructions the yellow particles were tested and found in¬ 
deed to be gold. 

On March 15 an account of Marshall’s find was printed in 
a weekly newspaper in San Francisco, which was then a 
little town of only seven hundred people. But still there was 
not much interest, for it was supposed that only a few bits 
of the precious metal had been discovered, as had happened 
before, even in the eastern states. 

But in May a man named Sam Brannan returned from the 
American River to San Francisco. Swinging his hat and 
shouting, he went about the streets holding up a bottle full 
of gold dust. Men now saw the gold in large quantity, and 
they went wild over it. The news was spread rapidly by 
men on horseback traveling past ranches and villages. From 
all directions there began a rush to the mountains. 

Men left their homes and farms, their business and their 
families, to work in the gold fields. The little towns along 
the coast, like San Francisco and Monterey, were soon almost 
deserted. Stores closed, laborers dropped their tools, church 
doors were nailed up, sailors left ships as they came into har¬ 
bor, jailers ran away from their prisoners, and the prisoners 
ran after the jailers — all running as fast as they could to 
get sudden wealth by digging for gold. 

There were not many people in California to share in this 
good fortune, for in 1847 the total population (not including 
Indians) had been only about ten thousand. But gold 
wrought a miracle of numbers. So fast did people come 
when they heard the news that in 1850 there were one hun- 


GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 


111 



City and Bay of Monterey. 

No one would think to-day that the city was almost deserted during the Gold Rush. 



112 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



dred thousand. Marshall’s discovery was made on January 
24, 1848. The rush of Californians began in May. 

A miracle The first news sent in letters reached the east in June, 

of numbers ft was no t f u jjy believed until a box of gold from Cali¬ 
fornia was received in Washington late in November. The 
President's Message to Congress on December 5 assured 
people that the news was true. He gave also the facts 


Pioneer Prospecting for Gold. 

about the gold mines as reported to him by Colonel Mason, 
the Governor of California. Two men in seven days had 
obtained Si7,000 worth of gold. One man in three weeks’ 
work had made $2000. 

A poor These were men who worked with their own hands at 

man’s gold was hing out the gold from the gravel of the river bottoms. 

mine _ 

Everywhere such miners were getting rich. Those who had 




GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 


113 


a little money to pay for Indian labor did not do quite so 
well, for the Indians were not intelligent workmen,'yet they 
also made big profits. But the main thing shown by the 
President’s message was that here was a kind of gold mining 
in which even the poorest man, if he would work, had a 
chance to become rich. 

“No capital,” says Mason’s report, “is required to obtain 
this gold, as the laboring man wants nothing but his pick, 
shovel and tin pan, with which to dig and wash the gravel; 
and many pick gold out of the crevices of rock with their 
butcher knives in pieces from one to six ounces.” 

There was another side to the picture. Mason’s report The news 
told also of high prices for food, clothing, and medicines. s P reads 
Rent for a single room was as high as $100 a month. And 
here and there were persons who had not been successful in 
finding gold. But when the report was printed in the eastern 
newspapers the idea that nearly every one got out of it was 
that gold had been found in California and that it could be 
had almost for the mere trouble of picking it up. It seemed 
as if the news must be traveling through the air, for in all 
places, near and far, there was excitement. Every big city 
and every little town saw young men getting together their 
belongings and preparing to start by any means they could 
find for this new “land of gold.” 

All over the world the news spread. Men started for Cali- Foreigners 
fornia from Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, and 
Holland. Some of them were miners, as from Wales, some 
mere adventurers, some political refugees running away from 
revolutions in Europe. They came also from the Pacific 
countries, like Australia and China. Four thousand Chi-j 
nese came in a single year (1851). 

But by far the greater number of those who took part in 
the first rush to California were Americans. By the end of 


114 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Around the 
Horn 



1849, when it was estimated that there were 100,000 people 
in California, 83,000 were from the United States, of whom 
75,000 were newcomers from east of the Rocky Mountains. 

There were three main routes of travel from the eastern 
states to California. The first was by sailing ship around 


A Mining Scene. 

From an old print. 

South America by Cape Horn. This was a long and tiresome 
trip, and often a dangerous one. So great was the demand 
for passage that many old and unseaworthy vessels were 
pulled out of the docks where they were lying idle, and sent 
off to earn a share in the high prices which people were will¬ 
ing to pay for passage. 

Most of the men who came around the Horn were from the 










GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 


115 


smaller seaport towns of New England and the northern 
Atlantic coast. One man who came around the Horn 
thought he would reach San Francisco in a few weeks. When 
he found the ship he was on would require months for the 
trip, he grew discouraged. He complained “ there is so much 
gold in California, and there are so many mep going, that by 
the time I reach the mines, gold itself will be so easy to get 
that it will not be worth anything.” 

The second route was by ship to the Isthmus of Panama, Across the 
thence across the isthmus by canoe or boat part of the way, isthmus 



Crossing the Colorado Desert. 
From an old print. 


and by muleback the rest,' and then by steamboat, or some¬ 
times by sailing ship, north to San Francisco. Those who 
came across the isthmus were mostly from the larger cities 
like New York, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, and from the 
middle and southern states. 

The third route was the hardest of all, for it was by the Across the 
long overland journey in wagons drawn by horses, mules, or plains 
oxen, through almost unknown country, across deserts and 
mountains. 




116 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The journey from Independence, Missouri, where many of 
the overland expeditions began, to the summit of the Sierra 
Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe, could be made by a 
“fast mule train,” in good weather, in about four months. 
Some few made better time than this, but most were much 
slower. If the start was made late in the summer, there 
was the danger of being stopped and snowed in by an early 
winter season. This had been the fate of the Donner party 



A Pioneer Camp Attacked by Indians. 
From an old print. 


in 1846, before the “gold rush.” Then eighty-three men, 
women, and children were caught by the snows and held 
fast on the shores of Donner Lake, almost within reach of 
the dividing summit, and forty-two died there before rescue 
came. Such a fate threatened all who started too late in 
the season. 

The multi- The gold seekers who came overland were from the Mis- 

tude sissippi Valley. Many of them already knew something 

about this method of “moving west,” because either they or 




GOLD AND THE FORTY-NINERS 


117 


their fathers had traveled just this way in seeking western 
farms. But California was much farther off. Many people 
started without knowing how long the journey was, or of 
the lack of water in places, or that there was danger from 
Indians. They were carried away with excitement, and 
joined in the grand rush for California, believing they would 
get there some way, but not knowing just how. Five thou¬ 
sand of them, in 1849, died on the way and never saw the 
“golden land.” But forty thousand others did get across 
the plains, and nearly as many came by the sea routes. It 
was as if some fairy had waved a golden wand and the people 
had sprung from the ground. 


CHAPTER XI 



GETTING INTO THE UNION 

Fear of de- When so many men, and especially young men, left the 

population eastern part of the United States, people became alarmed, 
in the east . TXT . _ . ... 

they said: We are losing our population, our industries 

will suffer, and this new country of California is hurting us, 


San Francisco in the Fifties. 

From an old print. 

not helping us, in spite of all its gold.” But there was a 
remedy for this evil. Just at this time it happened that 
there began to come to the United States great numbers of 
immigrants from Ireland, because of the potato famine there, 
and from Germany, because of the failure of a great revolu¬ 
tion to overthrow kings and to set up rule by the people. 

118 





GETTING INTO THE UNION 119 


Nevada Fall, Yosemite Valley. 

The Forty-niners cared nothing for the scenic wonders that to-day attract so 
many visitors to California. 

Thus, the east got these new immigrants in large number, 
while California got the pick of the energetic, daring, young 
Americans. Men came here from all parts of the world, it 
is true, especially from countries where mining was known, 


The Forty- 

niners 

mainly 

young 

Americans 




120 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


but most of the Forty-niners were Americans. California, 
which shortly before had been very much like any other prov- 
I ince of Mexico, suddenly, in a year, was changed to an Amer¬ 
ican community. 

Desire for This new community soon saw the need of a different kind 
statehood . government from that which had been used by the Span- 



The Old City Hotel in 1849 . 

It was located at the corner of Kearny and Clay streets and was the first 
hotel in San Francisco. 


ish Californians before the Americans came. This Spanish 
type of government had done very well while there we.re few 
people. But California was growing fast. From a village 
of seven hundred inhabitants, San Francisco suddenly be¬ 
came a city of several thousand. Many of them lived in 
tents or in brush houses, or even camped out in the gullies 
that were then the city streets. Good government was 
needed for homes and for business, and was needed quickly 
for the people pouring in. Ships were lying at anchor in the 
harbor, unable to land their cargoes for lack of docks. In 
1849 over two hundred ships from United States ports, and 




GETTING INTO THE UNION 


121 


over three hundred from other countries, came into the bay 
of San Francisco. 

It is hard to think of San Francisco except as the beautiful Bad condi- 
city which we kno\v now. But in the spring of 1849 there sanVran- 
were only a few little centers where people lived. From cisco 
what is now California Street down to Market Street 



The First Presbyterian Church. 

From an old print. 

there was merely a group of sand hills covered with brush \ 
and scrub oak. Between Second, Market, and Mission 
streets, in a hollow protected from the winds, there were 
about one thousand tents. This place was called “ Happy 
Valley.” 

The few houses built were very hastily put up and were Flimsy 
made of rough boards. Instead of using plaster, they were houses 




122 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Houses 
sent from 
Boston 


The mud 
and the 
rats 


lined with cotton wool. Every once in a while fires would 
break out in one of these houses, and then a whole row would 
go up in flames. Within a year and a half there were six 
bad fires, which destroyed not only homes but also much 
merchandise in the stores. 

It was so difficult to get lumber, and labor cost so much, 
that people took to buying their houses in the east and hav¬ 
ing them shipped out to California. Many such houses were 
made in Boston and sent out in sections. In fact, the first 
year after the discovery of gold San Francisco was a kind of 
grand camping resort, where men lived as best they could, 
not certain that they would stay long. They were constantly 
going to and coming from the mines. It was a city of men, 
for there were few women. There were few servants. Every 
man did his own cooking, mended and washed his own clothes, 
repaired his house, or patched up his tent. 

These conditions did not last long for where men have 
money to spend freely, like the successful gold miners 
who came to the city for a “good time,” there will al¬ 
ways be other men with comforts and pleasures to sell. 
By the end of 1849 there were some really good hotels, 
and a few well-built houses. As the houses grew bet¬ 
ter, however, the streets grew worse, because of so much 
traffic. 

In the rainy season the mud was so deep that sometimes 
horses and wagons were actually swallowed up by it. If a 
man slipped off the plank sidewalk, some one usually had to 
fish him out of the sticky mud. Then there were the rats 
everywhere, which, like the gold seekers, had come with the 
ships from all over the world. They were in the houses 
and stores; they ran scurrying about the streets; they 
could even be seen in the harbor, swimming from ship to 
ship. 


GETTING INTO THE UNION 


123 



Presidio Terrace, San Francisco. 

Seventy-five years have made a decided change in living conditions in San Francisco. 













124 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Need of 
strong gov¬ 
ernment 


Western 

patriotism 


At first, then, men put up with bad living conditions, be¬ 
cause they did not expect to stay long. In just the same 
way they put up for a while with the old, weak form of gov¬ 
ernment. But by the summer of 1849 there were many bad 
characters in California, and especially in San Francisco. 
They did as they pleased, committed crimes, and were gen¬ 
erally defiant of any authority. 

The rest of the state also needed good order and govern¬ 
ment, for the men in the mines and for the new towns grow- 



Gold Rocker, Washing Pan, and Gold Borer. 


ing up in the mountains and along the coast. In the first 
few months after the gold discovery there was very little 
crime or disorder at the mines. Property and life were as 
safe as in a well-ordered eastern town. These early miners 
were of honest and industrious habits. But soon there came 
also gamblers and adventurers who hoped to live from the 
profits made by those who worked. Each group of honest 
men had to meet disorder and crime by local governments 
rapidly set up as the need arose. 

There was another reason why a new government was de¬ 
sired. This was the patriotic wish of the Americans to make 










GETTING INTO THE UNION 125 

their new home a part of the sisterhood of American states, 
— to “get into the Union.” The people of California wanted 
their territory to become a full-fledged state. The “old 
thirteen” colonies that had formed the United States had 


The Seal of California. 

Emblem of the statehood which the people of the territory desired. 

been very jealous of their state rights at first, and for a long 
time were afraid for the Union. But as people moved west 
and grew in numbers, one of the fondest hopes of the new 
settlements was to be permitted to form a state government 
and be admitted to the Union. New western communities 
always felt strongly what is called the “ sentiment of nation- 





126 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Lack of 
authority 


Californi¬ 
ans help 
them¬ 
selves 


The con¬ 
vention at 
Monterey 
and the 
constitu¬ 
tion 


ality,” and the people of California were as eager for state¬ 
hood as the people of Illinois, or Ohio, or Iowa had been in 
their turn. 

Now it was a curious fact that, in strict law, California 
had no general government at all, for as soon as the treaty of 
peace with Mexico was signed, the military governor had no 
legal authority, since there was no longer any war. Though 
he was still obeyed, it was only because people thought this 
was the best way of getting along until Congress acted. 

But Congress was slow to set up a government for Califor¬ 
nia. This was because the old slavery quarrel was now stir¬ 
ring again, and men were fighting in Congress about the 
spread of slavery to the new territories, of which California 
was counted as one. At first President Polk had wished Con¬ 
gress to act promptly and establish a territorial government 
in California. But this was before the news of the gold 
discovery had excited the east, and when California was 
thought of merely as a land, not as a people. So it was said, 
“There is no hurry.” 

Then came the rush of the gold seekers. They needed 
government, they wanted to be “in the Union,” and they 
were angry at the delay of Congress. At last, with the con¬ 
sent of General Riley, the new military governor, the people 
of California took matters into their own hands. They 
elected forty-eight delegates to a convention. Seven of 
them were Spanish Californians, for the Spanish people also 
were eager for a government that would protect their lands 
and interests. 

On September 3, 1849, the delegates met at Monterey. 
There they drew up a constitution and asked for admission 
of California as a state in the Union. The constitution was 
printed in both English and Spanish so that all could read 
it. It was very much like those usually set up by the other 




GETTING INTO THE UNION 


127 



Mono Lake from the Top of Mono Pass. 

This is one of the historic passes through which the immigrants came from Nevada. 














128 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


California 

admitted 


1 


A governor 
chosen 


new states. But it was modeled especially on that of New 
York, where the constitution had been recently amended, 
and of Iowa, which had just been admitted to the Union. 
So we may say that California had a constitution of the 
newest fashion. 

This constitution was important for the Union as well as 
for California, for it provided that slavery should not exist 
in the state. It also fixed the boundaries, another thing 
about which Congress was not at all decided. The provi- 



San Jose in 1856. 

From an old print. San Jose was the first state capital of California under 
the constitution of December 20, 1849. 


sion prohibiting slavery was a hard blow to the south, which 
desired to see slavery extended. The result was a hot de¬ 
bate in Congress oyer the admission of California to the 
Union. The south opposed while the north favored her 
admission. The result was the famous “Compromise” or 
“trade” of 1850. Thus California got a great deal of atten¬ 
tion in the east, not only for her gold, but also for her stand 
on slavery. 

But California went right ahead with her plans while Con¬ 
gress debated. The convention at Monterey closed on Octo¬ 
ber 13; an election was held, and Peter PL Burnett was 
chosen governor; and the legislature met at San Jose in 
December. Nine months later, September 9, 1850, Presi- 




GETTING INTO THE UNION 


129 



The Camino Real. 

A present-day view of the old road along which Governor Burnett’s coach 

raced. 

dent Fillmore signed a bill at Washington, to admit Califor¬ 
nia to the Union as a state. This is why we celebrate Sep¬ 
tember 9 as “Admission Day.” 



130 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The glad 
news of ad¬ 
mission is 
heard 


On an October morning, the eighteenth, the ship Oregon 
sailed into San Francisco Bay with the news, and almost on 
the instant messengers were started to all parts of the state 
to spread the glad tidings. On the top of one of the two 
stage coaches that started next morning in a mad race for 
San Jose was Governor Burnett himself. Each coach was 
drawn by six horses and it was a real race. As they drove 
along the old Spanish highway — the Camino Real — the 
news was spread by shouts to the ranchers along the way 
and to the people in the towns. Governor Burnett’s coach 
fairly flew along the Alameda and dashed into San Jose 
three minutes ahead of its rival. It was a glorious day for 
California. She had got into the Union. 


CHAPTER XII 



THE VIGILANTES 

People sometimes think, when they set up a government, Good gov- 
that it will work by itself and that they do not need to bother er nment 
about it. When they think that way, and are careless about 0 f itself 
government because they are so busy making money or en- 


Sacramento in 1849. 

From an old print. 

joying life, then control is pretty sure to fall into the hands 
of bad men who are busy in politics, and who make a busi¬ 
ness of helping themselves at the expense of other people’s 
property. 

This was what happened almost immediately in Cali- Crimes and 
fornia. The government once formed, the people who had disorder 

131 






132 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Bad men 

control 

politics 


The vigi¬ 
lance com¬ 
mittees 


The Com¬ 
mittee of 
1851 


been so eager to have it and to “get into the Union,” let it 
run at loose ends. Already there had been troubles with 
sluice-box thieves and murderers in the mining districts. 
The miners had usually settled these troubles in short or¬ 
der by setting up a Vigilance Committee, which chased 
the criminals out of the district. 

But now, in the fast-growing city of San Francisco, there 
was a reign of terror. Wicked men had flocked to the city 
from all over the world, especially from Australia. They 
knew that everybody was too busy making money to pay 
much attention to politics, so before any one knew how it 
was done, the criminals were in control of the city. They 
permitted murders and robberies to go on unchecked. They 
prevented good citizens from voting, by hiring bullies to 
strike and beat any one who dared oppose the “gang” on 
election days. These bad political “bosses” were even ac¬ 
cused of causing the terrible fires which so often occurred, 
especially the great fire of 1851, which destroyed over a thou¬ 
sand homes, and caused ten million dollars’ damage. 

At last, however, the good citizens of San Francisco be¬ 
came angry with this “legalized robbery.” Led by Wil¬ 
liam T. Coleman, they organized the famous Vigilance Com¬ 
mittee of 1851. It was made up of seven hundred men. 
They said that they would punish crimes by law, if possible; 
but if the laws were not adequate or if the courts were cor¬ 
rupt, they would punish the criminals without the help of 
the courts. 

Within a few days there was a serious case to deal with. 
A man named John Jenkins was caught trying to rob a store. 
He already had a bad record of crime and violence. In an 
hour he was brought up for trial before the committee; in 
two hours he was condemned, and before a full day had 
passed a great procession of citizens marched him to Ports* 


THE VIGILANTES 


133 



The Grizzly Giant, Wawona. 

See also page 3. It was the rush to the cities that caused disorder in 
the early days. The wild wonders of California were unknown or un¬ 
heeded. 










134 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


mouth Square and hanged him. The committee did great 
good in “cleaning up” the city. Four men were executed 
and thirty were sent away in this first year. Life and prop¬ 
erty were now safe for a time. 

But people forget so easily. Four years later, when some 
of the lessons of 1851 had been forgotten, another com¬ 
mittee had to be formed. Again the bad men had become 



Sunset in the Imperial Valley. 


Peaceful scenes like this awaited those who wanted to live in the 
country, but in the early fifties people preferred the turmoil of mining camp 
and city. 

bold and violent. And they were now better organized than 
before to control elections and elect their own judges who 
would wink at their crimes. 

One man dared to say what he thought of these criminals 
and bad political bosses. He was James King of William, 






THE VIGILANTES 


135 


editor of the Bulletin. He wrote in his paper about the The corn- 
misdeeds of a man named James Casey, who had been a con- of 

vict in New York State. In revenge Casey shot King on 
the street on May 14, 1856. King had become a martyr 
for good government. 

The men who had organized the committee in 1851 
now saw that they must act again, so they formed the New 
Vigilance Committee with Coleman as their leader. Casey 
was promptly tried and executed. But the committee was 
determined not to stop here. They would clear the city of 
rascals. They organized a force of six thousand citizens, 
and had regular troops of infantry and cavalry. They 
formed a special police force, and set up a fort in the heart 
of the city. They hanged four men and drove thirty others 
out of California. Eight hundred men suddenly decided 
that it would be healthier to leave San Francisco, and they 
left, unmourned. 

This Second Vigilance Committee was thorough, and 
soon San Francisco was a quiet, orderly city. Then the 
members of the committee quietly stopped their work and 
went back to their ordinary lives. 

The name of William T. Coleman is that of the first great William T. 
man of energy and courage in leadership to stand out in the Co * eman 
new state, and he is typical of the first ten years of Cali¬ 
fornia’s history as a state. These ten years were a time of 
adventure and of risk and daring in new undertakings. It 
was a time of hurry and push, of excitement and of great 
efforts in gold mining and in business. 

But just because of all this hurry, not many people thought 
of the duty of living simply as good citizens under good 
government. When evils crept in, men like Coleman put 
aside their business pursuits for a while, and showed the 
courage that was in them. But they forgot that the only 


136 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Cathedral Peaks, from Tuolumne Meadows. 









THE VIGILANTES 


137 


way in which they could have good government all the time 
was to be on the watch all the time against evil doers. 

The need of good government in California at this time 
was shown by another form of lawlessness, called “ filibus¬ 
tering.” Chief of the filibusters was William Walker. Walker 
was a New Orleans physician and newspaper man. Coming 
to San Francisco, he organized a force of men (1853) to go 
to Lower California to conquer that territory and add it to 
the United States. People believed that he intended to 
get new lands for the expansion of slavery. What he did 
was unlawful, but there were in California many adventurous 
Americans ready to help him or even to go with him. 

His force landed on the shores of Lower California, but was 
easily defeated. Walker then tried to march overland to 
get back to American soil. The way was hard and many 
of the men died from wounds or from starvation. Those 
who got back were arrested at the border by United States 
troops, but neither Walker nor his men were punished. In¬ 
deed no one took Walker’s scheme very seriously, and few 
understood just what he was planning to do. Several other 
“filibusters” raised parties in California to invade Mexico. 


William 

Walker, 

filibuster 


CHAPTER XIII 



THE PONY EXPRESS AND THE PACIFIC RAILROAD 

Better California was now a member of the American family, 

means of ^ was j Qn w f r0 m p er s i s ter states, and very soon 

cation men began to think of ways to shorten the time for travel 
and for sending letters. Mail at first came once a month 
by steamboat from New York to Panama, then was carried 


The Overland Mail en Route for San Francisco. 

From an old print. 

The over- across the isthmus — on muleback perhaps — and taken 
land mall steamboat to San Francisco. But this took so long that 
the government at Washington planned to send letters over¬ 
land. Mail routes were surveyed, roads were built, and 
owners of mail coaches were paid good sums to give regular 
service over the two thousand miles between the Missouri 
River and Sacramento. 


138 



PONY EXPRESS AND PACIFIC RAILROAD 139 


But even this was too slow for business letters, so a Pony The Pony 
Express was started by a private company to carry letters Ex P ress 
from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Francisco. There were 
sixty riders. They were picked men, good horsemen, with 
courage for any danger. Each man, on the days when he 
rode, was expected to cover about seventy-five miles, and to 
carry two hundred letters. To make them as light as pos¬ 
sible, they had to be written on tissue paper. Postage was 



The Pony Express across the Plains. 


five dollarsv for each half ounce, so letters were made short 
in those days. It was really a messenger service. The 
time for sending a letter across the mountains to San Fran¬ 
cisco was eight to ten days. This service was started in 
April, 1860, and continued twice weekly, until October, 1861. The 
Then a telegraph line was completed, and the hardy ponies telegraph 
and their bold riders were given a rest. 

The men picked for the Pony Express had to be light in 
weight, good riders, bold in danger, and able to endure fa¬ 
tigue. It was just the life for hardy young Westerners. 





140 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Many of them had stirring adventures. Some of them were 
killed by Indians or by white outlaws. All of them were 
ready to go beyond their regular route if, on arriving at a 
station, they found the next rider ill. 

“Pony Bob,” in the fall of 1860, when the Piute Indians 
went on the war-path in Nevada, rode his own route east¬ 
ward, seventy-five miles from the summit of the Sierras, 
then kept on for a comrade who could not go. He finished 


Arrival of the First Overland Stage Coach in San Francisco. 

From an old print. 

that route, then after a rest of nine hours, he turned west¬ 
ward on the return route. He was now forced to dodge 
Indians by making detours. Yet in the end he reached his 
original starting point nearly on schedule time, having trav¬ 
eled three hundred and eighty miles. 

Sometimes a special effort was made for speed. The fast¬ 
est time of all for the two thousand miles from the Missouri 
River to Sacramento was made in carrying President Lin¬ 
coln’s inaugural address in 1861. This was done in five 
days and seventeen hours. 






PONY EXPRESS AND PACIFIC RAILROAD 141 


The Pony Express gave very good service for business 
letters, and the stage coaches carried passengers and small 
packages of valuable express or freight. But this was not 
enough, for men in the East wanted some quick way by which 
they could send to California heavy goods they wished to 
sell. And Californians were just as eager to get the goods 
quickly. Better means of carrying freight were needed. 
How to provide them was the question. 

Now, between 1850 and 1860 there had been a great deal 
of railroad building in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Mis¬ 
souri, so that all parts of these states were connected by rail¬ 
road with Chicago, St. Louis, and the East. By 1860 freight 
could go by railroad or by water on the Missouri River to 
Kansas City and Omaha. Why not have a railroad across 
the continent? 

There was much talk about the plan, but people could not 
agree. Various eastern cities wanted to be the great “termi¬ 
nal ” of such a railroad. Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, Mem¬ 
phis, and New Orleans were all rival claimants. This quarrel 
was very harmful. The question of a railroad became mixed 
up with that of slavery, about which the North and the 
South were disputing. And so the building of a railroad to 
California was delayed longer than it should have been. 
Quarrels usually do harm. 

But the railroad was sure to come, and the Civil War 
hastened its coming. When that war broke out the North 
was very anxious about California, for it was feared that it 
might join the Confederacy. It was remembered that it 
was in San Francisco that William Walker had first started 
his schemes for expanding slavery. California, it is true, 
had prohibited slavery, but there were many men in the 
state who had come from the South, and the North was anx¬ 
ious about the stand California would take. The best way 


Early talk 
of railroads 


Delayed by 

slavery 

struggle 


142 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


California 
loyal to the 
Union 


Judah, the 
engineer 


t 


to hold California for the Union, it was thought, was to im¬ 
prove the means of travel. A railroad must be built to the 
coast quickly, and by a northern route, so the northerners said. 

There was really no danger that California would join the 
Confederacy. Indeed there were very few in the state who 

wished it. Just as in 
1849 the desire was to 
get into the Union, so 
now the desire was to 
stay in it. And none 
was more loyal to the 
Union than Leland Stan¬ 
ford, the “ war gover¬ 
nor” of California. The 
people were loyal too. 
Sixteen thousand men 
enrolled in the militia, 
but the distance was too 
great to‘ send them over¬ 
land to the seat of war. 
A few volunteers got 
into active service in the 
East, but most of the 
militia’s work was limited 
to Indian fighting and border patrols in California. 

The war, however, did hurry the building of the rail¬ 
road. The need of quick communication was more appar¬ 
ent than before. A young California engineer named Judah 
had already in 1859 mapped out a route from Omaha, across 
the Rocky Mountains, through the Sierras, to Sacramento, 
and had urged action at Washington. Then four Sacra¬ 
mento men met and organized the Central Pacific Railroad 
Company, and employed Judah as engineer. 





PONY EXPRESS AND PACIFIC RAILROAD 143 



The names of these men should be remembered. They 
were Leland Stanford, grocer, Mark Hopkins and Collis P. 
Huntington, hardware merchants, and Charles Crocker, 
dry goods merchant. Judah went again to Washington, 
and noY7 that the war had shown the need of the road, he 
got a better hearing. President Lincoln signed the bills, 
July, 1862, which provided for construction by two groups 


Leland Stanford Driving the Golden Spike. 

of men, one to build the Central Pacific from the western 
end, and the other to build the Union Pacific from Omaha. 

Work began in 1863. To build two thousand miles of 
track through unsettled lands, where only unfriendly In¬ 
dians could be found, where there were no towns to pro¬ 
vide supplies for the great army of workmen; to cross over, 
through or under steep mountains, higher than ever a railroad 
had been before, — these were feats so difficult that thou¬ 
sands of people believed the road would never be finished. 


The build¬ 
ing of the 
railroad 

Stupen¬ 
dous diffi¬ 
culties 




Land 

grants 


Promon¬ 
tory Point 



144 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

But Congress was interested in the highway, for its mem¬ 
bers knew that the whole country would be the better for 
it. For these reasons the government made large gifts of 
public land to the men who had the courage to put their 
money into the railroad. Without such grants it could not 
have been built at this time. It was one of those things 
that had to be done as it was done, or put off for a long time. 


The Inner Quadrangle at Stanford University. 

The golden spike and silver hammer used by Leland Stanford are kept in 
the museum here. 


Yet there were evil after-effects, when the land grants gave 
the railroad control of state politics. 

Judah did not live to see his plan completed, but the work 
was pushed steadily forward, and finally in May, 1869, the 
last tie was laid at a place where the roads from Sacra¬ 
mento and Omaha met. The site was Promontory Point, 
Utah, fifty miles northwest of Ogden. 

To mark the event three specially made railroad spikes 





PONY EXPRESS AND PACIFIC RAILROAD 145 


were used in fastening the last rails to the ties. Arizona The golden 
gave one made of gold, silver, and iron; Nevada’s spike s P ikes 
was of silver; California presented a golden spike, which 
was driven into place by the presidents of the two lines — 

Stanford for the Central Pacific, Durant for the Union Pa¬ 
cific. 

The great day was celebrated, not only on the spot, but 
everywhere, all over the Union, for the Pacific coast was 
at last tied to the Atlantic. The golden spike of California 
was pulled up afterward and, together with the silver ham¬ 
mer which Stanford used, is now shown as a curio in the 
museum of Stanford University. 

The railroad opened California to the East, and settlers 
came, not alone to work in the mines, but to build farms 
and homes, and to develop the grain and fruit ranches of the 
many fertile valleys. 



CHAPTER XIV 


The boom 
years 


TROUBLOUS TIMES AND THE NEW CONSTITUTION 

The eight years after the Civil War were a time of rapid 
growth and development all over the northern states of the 
Union. They were years in which big enterprises were at- 



Railroad Building on the Southern Pacific. 


tempted; years in which railroad building went on at a tre¬ 
mendous pace; years in which business men took big risks 
for big profits. When we think of the daring and energy 
of the men who came to California in 1849, we may corn- 

146 





TROUBLOUS TIMES 


147 


pare with it the daring spirit, sometimes even the gambling 
fever, that went through the United States in these after- 
the-war years. 

With this business spirit there came, just as it had come Public 
earlier in California, a spirit of lawlessness. But instead graft 
of boldly breaking the law for their own purposes, evil men 
now found tricky ways to evade the law. They became 
“ grafters, ” and by bribery and in other ways managed 
to get control of public offices. They did illegal things in 
what seemed a legal way. In this California was but one of 
all the states, for they were all swept by an after-the-war 
rush to get business started again without much thought 
of the effect upon government. 

But in California, besides the general overdoing of new 
business, there were some special conditions that did not 
exist in the other states. 

In the first place, there was the question of the Chinese. The Chi- 
They had been coming over since 1849, and they had been “ ese < l ues " 
brought in large numbers to do the hard work of building 
the railroad. By 1870 there were seventy-five thousand of 
them in the state. The white workingmen complained that 
they were being driven from work by the cheaper Chinese, 
and that while the rich men in the state, who hired Chinese 
labor, were growing richer, white laborers were growing 
poorer. 

Then again, while honest mining was still going on, there Speculation 
had grown up a group of speculators in the mining stocks 
who themselves gambled and who taught others to gamble. 

The result was that many men were foolishly led on by these 
gamblers and lost all their money. 

The farmers who came in and took up grain lands soon High 

found there was little profit, because there was but one rail- fr ® ight 

rates 

road in the state and it could charge whatever rates it pleased. 


148 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The crisis 
of 1873 


The Con¬ 
stitution of 
1879 



The farmers said that the railroad took their profits away 
from them. The merchants complained that the railroad 
gave lower rates to those who were special friends of the 
railroad and that this was not fair. In short, by 1873, when 
a great financial crisis swept over all the United States, ruin¬ 
ing thousands of business men and throwing hundreds of 


A Cherry Orchard. 

The fruit farmers were at the mercy of the railroad. 


thousands out of employment, the situation in California 
was already very bad. 

A great part of all this trouble was simply that California, 
like the rest of the country, had been overdoing a good thing; 
had tried to do too much business on too little capital and 
too fast. The trouble was really due to the fact that the 
people had been careless in business, and careless about their 







TROUBLOUS TIMES 


149 


government. They should have blamed themselves. But 
it is natural to make excuses for oneself and to put the blame 
on some one else. 

This time every one in California began to say that some- Discontent 
thing must be wrong with the form of government under 
which such bad things could happen. They said they must 
set up a new government, so a Constitutional Convention 
was summoned to put things right. 

There were two classes of people, especially, who felt 
badly treated, the workingmen of the cities and the farmers. 

The workingmen had been stirred by a popular orator named 
Dennis Kearney, who said all the trouble was due to the 
fact that the Chinese would work for less pay than would 
an American, so that the Americans lost the jobs. Kearney Dennis 
talked day after day, to crowds of men out of work, on this Kearne y 
one topic. He began and ended every speech with the words, 

“The Chinese must go.” 

But workingmen had other things to complain of also. 

They joined with the farmers when the time came to vote 
for delegates to the convention, and won a victory at the 
polls. So the delegates of these workingmen and farmers 
had a majority and controlled the convention when it met 
in Sacramento in 1879. 

The chief complaint was against the railroad, because it The legis- 

was said that by bribery and scheming and always meddling latl J re 

curbed. 

at elections it had in the past been able to say who should be 
elected to the legislature. People said, “The railroad owns 
the legislature,” and they were almost as much afraid of 
the legislature as they were of the railroad. 

The result was that in the new Constitution of 1879 an 
attempt was made in every possible way to take away from 
the legislature the power to do things of importance, or to 
pass laws of importance. The idea was to keep that power 


150 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Legislation 
by amend¬ 
ments 



The Capitol at Sacramento. 

directly in the hands of the people for use at regular elections. 
The people said, “ Of course we have to have a legislature, but 
we are afraid of it. We will elect one, but we will tie its hands.” 

The way in which this was done was to put into the con¬ 
stitution itself many laws that under the old constitution 
had been left to the legislature to pass upon. By this 









TROUBLOUS TIMES 


151 


method all these laws became parts of the constitution and 
the only way in which they could be changed was by a con¬ 
stitutional amendment, voted upon by all the people. This 
was thought to be a better form of government because it 
was more democratic. Certainly it was a new idea in the 
United States. 

One of the keenest writers on American politics, James 
Bryce, in his “American Commonwealth” just published at 
that time, thought this California idea so new and, as he 
regarded it, so dangerous to good government, that he de¬ 
voted many pages to discussing it, and even printed in his 
book the greater part of the California Constitution of 1879. 
Bryce’s argument about democratic government was that 
it is the business of good citizens to think about good govern¬ 
ment all the time, and to elect to the legislature only good 
men, whom they can trust to carry out the people’s ideas. 

Whatever Bryce’s criticism, it is an interesting fact that 
“the California idea” became a sort of model for many 
other states, especially those in the west, and they either 
amended their constitutions or adopted new ones with 
similar reforms. Thus California, as early as July 4, 1879, 
when the constitution was adopted, was the leader in this 
new method of trying to make government more democratic. 


Bryce’s 

opinion 


The “ Cal¬ 
ifornia 
idea ” 


CHAPTER XV 



THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 


Chinese 

immigra¬ 

tion 

stopped 


The birth and youth of a state often supply to its history 
the incidents that seem most exciting. It is the period of 
what is called dramatic interest. This is because every¬ 
thing then is new. The later years seem humdrum in com- 


Rapid Growth. 

Colorado Street, Pasadena, in the eighties. Compare the same view on 

page 153. 

parison. This is true of California, for she, more than 
most states, had in her youth some very thrilling times. 

But her period of growth is interesting also. She grew 
up very fast. By 1880 she was a fully matured state. The 

152 





THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 153 

political struggles became less fierce, and when in 1892 the 
United States Congress stopped Chinese immigration for 
ten years, the most bitter cause of contention was removed. 

Meanwhile, the state was growing steadily by the com¬ 
ing of people who wished to settle and Jive here in perma¬ 
nent homes. Southern California, especially, attracted 


Rapid Growth. 

Colorado Street, Pasadena, to-day. Compare the same view on page 152. 

people by its climate and by the chance it gave for fruit 
growing on small ranches. 

Oranges and lemons had been grown by the mission 
fathers, but it was not until about 1870 that fruit planting 
was begun in a large way. The completion of the Santa 
Fe and Southern Pacific railway lines made it possible to 
send fruit east cheaply and so made it certain that what a 
man raised on his ranch, he could sell. This gave a great 
“ boom ” to the fruit industry. 


The or¬ 
ange belt 








154 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

In 1879 the first navel orange trees were shown at a fair 
in Riverside. From them, by grafting, was brought about 
the change in the California orange which has more than 
anything else made it a great success as a commercial fruit. 


Parent Tree of Washington Navel Orange, Riverside. 

The colony All sorts of people came to share in the fruit industry, 

plan of 1m- b u t m ost interesting were the groups or colonies of people 
migration 1 , 

from the eastern states, where men and women agreed to 

come to California together and set up here a little com- 

j munity of their own. In this way they would form a group 

' of old friends in a new country. They remind one of the 

religious groups which first settled New England. 









THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 


155 



Orange Grove near Glendora. 










156 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Old neigh¬ 
bors in a 
new home 


Sometimes these California settlers bought property in 
common and ran industries on a profit-sharing plan. But 
more often the colony consisted of people who liked each 
other, who all wanted to come to California to live, 
and who agreed to settle in the same spot, where each 



Grape Culture, San Joaquin Valley. 


could follow his own business, and yet be neighbors as 
before. 

In the town of Campbell, in Santa Clara County, for ex¬ 
ample, not many years ago could be found a town banker, 
his brother the town physician, their friends the minister 
and the superintendent of schools, and several prune and 
apricot growers, all of whom had come together from one 
small Iowa town, named Grinned. Every year all the people 
near by who had ever lived in Grinnell got together and had 








THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 157 

a celebration in the town of Campbell. Arlington near 
Riverside is another example. 

This method of “moving” by groups of people made 
the change from old homes to new less hard. There was 
no need of making a break in pleasant social relations long 
established in the old home town. The new centers con- 


An Ostrich Farm. 

stantly drew more and more of those “back home” who 
at first had not ventured to make the change. 

In the San Joaquin Valley, raisin grapes became the chief Other 
fruit crop; in the Santa Clara Valley, it is the prune and P roducts 
the apricot; in the Salinas Valley, potatoes. The potato is 
also staple in the lower Sacramento Valley, though now 
rice is being rapidly developed on the drained tule lands. 

But it is hard to say that this fruit is grown in one locality 
and that fruit in another, for nearly all may be grown where 





158 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Bonanza 

farms 


Small 

farms 


any fruit will grow, if given proper care. Yet the south 
is first in citrus fruits, and around that industry the pros¬ 
perity of the south first developed. Now there has grown 
up there the great city of Los Angeles, and about it many 
lesser cities of beauty and of equal prosperity according to 
their size. 

In central California grain raising was early an industry, 
and for a while the bonanza wheat farms were the wonder 
of the world. Each farm contained several thousand acres. 
In the fall a powerful tractor engine went over the land, 
dragging after it sixteen ten-inch plows, behind them four 
six-foot harrows, and still farther back drills and seeders, 
which put the seed wheat into the ground. So the ground 
could be plowed, harrowed, drilled, and seeded, all at one 
time. Only a few men were needed to tend this huge ma¬ 
chine. 

Then, the next summer, came the harvesting of the wheat. 
For this tractor engines were sometimes used again, but 
more often long lines pf horse or mule teams drew the har¬ 
vester, which all in one operation cut off the heads of wheat, 
threshed, cleaned, and sacked it. In the morning there 
would be a waving field of grain; in the evening a field of 
stubble, dotted all over with sacks of wheat. 

Such bonanza farms existed in the lower parts of the 
Sacramento and the San Joaquin river valleys. A few are 
still to be found, especially around Stockton, but in this 
kind of wheat growing the farmer was dependent upon rain¬ 
fall for he could not cut up these great fields with irrigation 
ditches. 

It was early known that surer and better crops could be 
raised on smaller farms where irrigation could be used, but at 
first there were no railroads near by to which the small 
farmer could haul his grain cheaply. This did not matter so 





THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 159 


Date Palm and Orange Grove with a Background of Snow 

Mountains. 

A good illustration of the variety of climate in California. 


much to the “bonanza 5 ' farmer for he could make up “wheat 
wagon trains 55 and haul long distances. When branch 




160 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Fight for 
fair rail¬ 
road rates 


Irrigation 


railroad lines began to be built in the great central valleys 
of California, then the bonanza farms there began to be 
cut up into smaller farms and ranches. 

These branch railroads were all a part of the one great Cali¬ 
fornia railroad, now called the Southern Pacific. Since there 
was no competition, the railroad charged very high freight rates. 



Artesian Well and Field op Sugar Beets. 


In the “eighties” began the serious war of the farmers for 
fair railroad rates, a war not ended until a State Railway 
Commission was given full power to act, not merely to ad¬ 
vise, and this was not until 1911. A long period of struggle 
was required before this came about. 

But ever since 1880 California had been counted as one 
of the “grain states,” even though, unlike the grain states 
of the middle west, irrigation is generally necessary to off- 



THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 


161 



A 'Flock of Five Thousand Sheep. 









162 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


set the dry seasons. California is blessed with natural water 
supplies in the Sierras as are few Americans states, and 
whether for agriculture or for power the state has a wealth 
in water more valuable than all her mines. 

Timber In the mountains of the Coast Range and in the Sierras 
there are timber lands, some wastefully cut and destroyed 
in the earlier years but now more carefully worked with an 
eye to the future. 

Grazing I n the meadow lands of the lower valleys, and during the 
summer in the valleys of the high Sierras, cattle and sheep 



Irrigating Canal beside Orange Grove with Snow Mountains in 
the Distance. 


find forage. Every spring as soon as the snows are off the 
passes of the Sierras, large herds of cattle are driven over 
into the rich meadow valleys. There the cattle run wild, 
graze and grow fat, and are driven out again just before 
the winter snows set in. 

Oil In more recent years oil has been developed in rich supply, 







THIRTY YEARS OF GROWTH 


163 



Sixth Street, Los Angeles, Looking West from Main. 


ml 








164 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


especially in the lower San Joaquin Valley, near Bakersfield, 
and more recently in the Los Angeles basin, reviving some 
of the old excitement and rush of early mining days. These 
industries also are among those that give the state repu¬ 
tation and wealth. 


Every California school boy and girl knows the products, 
the richness, and the glorious life of the state, and knows 



Ditch Carrying Water to Be Used in Irrigation. 


of San Francisco and Los Angeles, the great cities which 
serve this busy industrial life. For thirty years, from 1880 
to 1910, the thought and energy of California were given 
almost wholly to expanding this life of products and profit, 
and there was little of dramatic interest to make California 
different from the other states of the Union, each growing 
and expanding in its own way. 



CHAPTER XVI 



COURAGE IN DISASTER 

But there was one incident that brought out again the old- 
time spirit of courage and mutual helpfulness that ought 


The Church, Stanford University. 

Stanford probably suffered more from the earthquake than any other place 
unless perhaps Santa Rosa. 

always to be a part of California life. That was the disaster 
caused by the great earthquake up and down the coast and 

165 


The earth¬ 
quake, 
April 18, 
1906 





166 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The 

“ fault ” 
line 


by the fire in San Francisco, on April 18, 1906, with its 
fearful cost in loss of life and of hundreds of millions of 
dollars. 

Geologists have long known that the California coast 
range of mountains shows one very remarkable feature. 
This is an ancient “fault” older than man by many ages. 
It runs in almost a straight line from near Point Arena south¬ 
wards to near Mount Pinos in Ventura County, a distance 
of 375 miles. A “fault” marks a slip in the earth’s surface, 
on each side of which the earth has moved suddenly and vio¬ 
lently, thus causing the earth to shake and vibrate for many 
miles on each side of the line. 

If you take a lump of half-hardened mud in your two hands 
and push straight out with one hand while you pull with the 
other, the lump will split in a straight line. On each side of 
the line there will be many little cracks and tears. This is 
what happened along the coast line “fault” on the early 
morning of April 18, 1906. 

The new “fault” was just a new split along the old geologic 
line. It could be plainly followed, for it was as if a great 
plow, about twenty feet wide, had gone along the ground. 
Where roads or fences had crossed the line at right angles, 
the two parts of the road or fence became separated by a 
distance varying from six to twenty feet. 

In the Santa Clara Valley, for example, this fault line lay 
to the west of San Jose about thirteen miles, and west of 
Stanford University about six miles. Following it north, it 
was found that the line ran out to sea eight miles south of 
the Cliff House near San Francisco, and then struck the shore 
again, and turned inland at Bolinas Lagoon. The damage 
done by the earthquake was greatest, usually, in towns near 
the line, but buildings were shaken or destroyed as far away 
as fifty miles. 


COURAGE IN DISASTER 


167 



It would take a long list merely to name the towns and Loss at 
villages that were hurt. Santa Rosa suffered the heaviest Stanford 
damage, but probably no other small place was hit so hard Umversity 
as Stanford University. Here the old and strongly con¬ 
structed buildings were very little damaged, but there were 
several new stone buildings, not very well put up. Few of 


Hetch Hetchy Valley. 

Site of San Francisco’s new reservoir, planned since the fire. 


these were actually shaken down, but they were so shattered 
that they had to be pulled down and rebuilt. 

The university estimated the damage at the time at two 
and one quarter million dollars. To rebuild properly has 
cost three million dollars. Yet there were but two lives 
lost. One was a student hurt by a falling wall; the other 
was Otto Gerdes, the fireman at the university power house, 



168 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



The Campanile, University of California. 

Though Stanford was severely damaged by the earthquake, the state uni¬ 
versity was unharmed. 







Lake Merritt, Overlooking Adams Point, Oakland. 

Oakland sheltered many refugees after the fire. 

quake caused damage there also, but not so much as to places 
nearer the fault line. Houses that were poorly built were 
thrown down and all over the district south of Mission 
Street fires broke out. There was no way to fight the fire, 
for the water main leading to the city had been broken far 
out in the country, near the fault line. So the fire spread 
rapidly. 

By noon of April 18, many people were homeless. Men, The 
women, and children took in their hands a few things they refugees 


COURAGE IN DISASTER 169 


who ran out when the shock came, then remembering his 
duty, ran back and cut off all the electric switches. He was 
killed by the fall of the power-house chimney. His act of 
heroism and duty probably saved the university from a 
severe fire. 

The earthquake tragedy was bad enough, but it was noth- The San 
ing compared to the great fire in San Francisco. The earth- ^ rancisco 



170 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Tremen¬ 
dous loss of 
property 


San Fran¬ 
cisco helps 
itself 


wished most to save and ran through the streets, seeking 
safety and a refuge. Some crowded to the ferries, trying to 
get across the bay to the Oakland and Sausalito shores. 
Others went to the railroad station only to find that trains 
could not run. Then many began a long march along the 
roads leading toward San Jose. 

Criminals soon began to loot the burning buildings. But 
this was stopped by the energy of General Frederick Fun- 
ston, who placed soldiers from the Presidio all over the city, 
with orders to shoot on sight any one caught stealing. A few 
were shot and the looting quickly ceased. 

Fanned by a breeze, the fire continued to spread. Dyna¬ 
mite was used to blow down whole blocks of buildings across 
the path of the fire, in the hope that the flames could not 
jump the gap. But the fire went too fast. Within half an 
hour after the earthquake shock a blanket of dark smoke 
hung over the city. By night it looked like the cloud 
thrown out by a volcano, and the light from the fire gave a 
pink glow that could be seen forty miles away. The next 
day the smoke went up in a straight column, estimated to 
be two miles high. But that evening the direction of the 
wind changed, and blew the fire back upon itself, so that by 
the night of April 20 it had pretty much burned itself out. 

The burned district was a nearly square section, four 
miles long by three miles broad. Every bank, theater, ho¬ 
tel, library, and city building of any importance was de¬ 
stroyed. Nearly all the business houses of the city went up 
in flames. The total property loss was placed at nearly 
five hundred million dollars. 

While the fire was raging and people were fleeing from the 
city, there were many more who could not get away and who 
were homeless and hungry. These made rough shelters for 
themselves, using boards and sacking. Fortunately the sky 


COURAGE IN DISASTER 


171 



Twenty-Four Hundred Refugee Cottages, Thirteenth Avenue, San Francisco. 

This is a fine illustration of the prompt and effective way in which the people of San Francisco met the great crisis. 



172 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Everybody 

helps 


A real de¬ 
mocracy 


was bright and clear, and the weather warm. Everywhere 
people had to cook in the streets, for even in the unburned 
district the city authorities would not permit fires to be built 
in the houses until the chimneys had been inspected. Every 
one was generous. Homes were opened to the refugees, and 
food was shared, but so many were homeless that the city 
could not at once care for all its own people. 

In this crisis the whole United States showed a helpful 
sympathy and sent aid. Before that aid could reach San 
Francisco from the East, the near-by towns and villages, for¬ 
getting their own earthquake damage, organized local com¬ 
mittees. They sent delegates to a joint conference, and 
within three days the work of relieving the city’s most press¬ 
ing needs was in full swing. 

One town, where there were local facilities, set itself to 
turn out tents for the homeless; another cut short its own 
milk supply and organized a dairy district to supply milk; 
another set up kitchens in the streets of San Francisco and 
took over as its work the feeding of the people of a special 
block — or what had been a block — and many other towns 
followed the example. 

Out of the disorder and chaos and suffering, there came, 
almost as if by magic, an order and a spirit of mutual help 
that never could have come in a country where self-govern¬ 
ment was unknown. The disaster shook a lot of meanness 
out of people and made them big and generous. It was 
curious to see how the old spirit of pioneer days was shown 
by men who had never expected to go through hard times 
such as their fathers had known in 1849. One likes to think 
that this courage and this ability to meet a new task were 
a relic or souvenir of the old days when the state was young 
and ready for any hard task. 

San Francisco was rebuilt with wonderful rapidity and 


COURAGE IN DISASTER 


173 





■iinrrittMtm 


Opening the Panama Pacific Exposition. 















174 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


San Fran¬ 
cisco re¬ 
built 


with all the old-time pride. In celebration of the opening of 
the Panama Canal, she organized in 1915 an exposition that 
showed the world how little the fire had been able to hold 
her back; but it was her ready courage at the moment when 
the fire was on, and the order and organizing ability of the 
near-by towns that will be most remembered in the years to 


come. 


CHAPTER XVII 



NEW POLITICAL LIFE 

In recent years there has been no great, stirring event to A time for 
tell about, like the fire of 1906, but there has taken place study, not 
a change in the real life of the state, more important to know for story 


Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, Bordered by Eucalyptus and 
Palm Trees. 

about than anything else that has ever happened in Califor¬ 
nia. This is the change in politics, laws, and methods of 
government brought about since 1909. Such things cannot 
easily be told as a story. They must be studied. All that 
can be done here is merely to note what the principal changes 
were. 


175 




176 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Civic spirit 
revived 


New polit¬ 
ical ma¬ 
chinery 


The party 
caucus 


The San Francisco fire did more than show that men still 
had fine qualities of courage and helpfulness. It brought to 
life again that feeling of duty in politics which had been cold 
or sleeping, in the years when men were thinking mostly of 
getting rich. Men found out, just as in vigilante days, that 
when the trial came they could, if they would, get together, 
think things out straight and quickly, and put a remedy to 
a bad situation. 

Men had been “too busy” to pay attention to politics. 
The fire again forced them to work together and help one 
another as citizens. They found that this was not only a 
good thing in itself, but that they liked it. But they found 
also that a number of political bosses had so long controlled 
the state that it was hard to get rid of them and their 
methods. 

These bosses controlled public offices because, in one way 
or another, they controlled the party caucus, or meeting, 
when delegates were named to go to the party convention. 
The convention named the men who were to run for office at 
the elections. To be sure, all the people voted at the election, 
but if they had no choice except to vote upon men who had 
been set up by the bosses then the people really had very 
little to say about who should fill the public offices. 

This evil condition of things had become very clear, even 
before 1906, and as usual an attempt was made to find some 
new political machinery that would set things right. A 
caucus was a called meeting attended by but few people, and 
it gave a fine chance to the bosses to see that their supporters 
got there first and filled the hall. Now, in 1901, public opin¬ 
ion finally forced the adoption of a law which was really in¬ 
tended to give all the voters a chance to have a voice in the 
caucus. 

This was the “direct primary” law, which did away with 


NEW POLITICAL LIFE 


177 



McKinley Park, Sacramento. 

A children’s playground of forty acres, with swings, ball grounds, tennis courts, a club house, and 

lake with boats. 














178 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Direct the old caucus, and ordered that all those who wished to be 
primaries nominated for office should be voted upon in a preliminary 
election. The people could then choose the one they pre¬ 
ferred as a candidate. Each party holds such a “direct 
primary. ” Then the men nominated are voted on again by 
the people in the regular election. In this way it was hoped 


The San 
Francisco 
“ graft ” 
prosecution 


John Burroughs beside One of His Favorite Trees. 
Burroughs always worked hard for the preservation of California’s natural 
resources and beautiful scenery. 

that the people would choose for themselves their candidates, 
and then, later, choose from among these candidates the 
ones best suited for office. 

But this new method did not really change matters mucl. 
at first, for the people, having passed the law, seemed to ex¬ 
pect that it would work without their help. A majority of 
them did not take the trouble to go and vote in the primary. 




NEW POLITICAL LIFE 


179 


The result was that the new bit of political machinery was 
managed by the old bosses, just as before. They saw to it 
that their friends went to the primaries and voted as they 
were told. 

But the fire of 1906 forced the men of San Francisco to 
work together in civic matters, and outside of San Francisco 
there was the same renewal of this get-together spirit. In 
the city itself the public-spirited citizens quickly found that 
they were being hindered in their work of rebuilding the 
city by the old political gang which controlled offices. As a 
result a great “graft” prosecution was started against some 
city officials and most of them were driven out of office. It 
was a very bitter fight in San Francisco, and all California 
watched it with interest. 

In fact, the next few years proved that the men who started 
anew in 1906 to do their duty as citizens found so much 
pleasure in it that they kept on. The result was that by 
1909, all over California, the control of the old-time politi¬ 
cal leaders was being swept away. 

Few of the men who led this new movement had ever been 
heard of before in state politics. They were small business 
men, lawyers, merchants, ministers, school teachers, and 
farmers. In fact there were men from every class that for a 
good many years had been “too busy,” or too timid, to take 
a hand in politics. They were the kind of men who had been 
in the habit of saying, “ Politics is a bad business; Fm go¬ 
ing to keep out of it.” But now they realized that politics 
would never be a good business unless good men took a hand 
in it, and they came in with a vim. 

Of course, they had to have a leader. The man whom 
they chose was Hiram Johnson, a lawyer of San Francisco. 
He became prominent during the graft prosecution in that 
city. The lawyer who was conducting the trials, working to 


New 

leaders 


Francis 

Heney 


180 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Hiram 

Johnson 


Attack on 
the railroad 



convict the former bosses and officials, was Francis J. Heney. 
In the very midst of the trial, when everything depended on 
Heney, he was shot and seriously wounded. 

For a moment it looked as if the prosecution of the trials 
could not go on. Hiram Johnson volunteered to take 
Heney’s place, and he carried on the trials until Heney re¬ 
covered. Johnson showed courage, and a great sense of public 


Hiram Johnson. 

duty. His act made him very popular with all those in the 
state who were anxious to set up a better government. At 
their demand he became a candidate for governor. 

Hiram Johnson went all over the state making speeches 
and everywhere he tried to convince people of just one thing. 
His cry was “Put the railroad out of politics.” He said 
that while the railroad no longer tried to control all offices 
and the legislature as it had done thirty years before, it was 



NEW POLITICAL LIFE 


181 


still much too active in politics. The railroad could no 
longer be accused of doing many positively bad things, but 
its influence was always against change toward new things. 
This meant that better conditions and laws were prevented 
because the railroad was afraid of change. It was indeed a 
necessary first step to put the railroad out of politics, but 
this was not all that was needed. 

When Johnson and his supporters got control of the legis¬ 
lature in 1911 they began a series of changes in law affecting 



Main Post Office, San Francisco. 


both politics and industry. These reforms have greatly 
altered the character of the government and the political 
life of the state. Again, as in 1879, California became a 
leader in a new movement, though this time other states did 
not await California’s example, but were progressing at the 
same time with her and, in- fact, influencing her as much as 
she influenced them. 

In political machinery there was added to the direct pri- Initiative 
mary law, the “initiative,” the “referendum,” and the “re- 





182 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Referen¬ 

dum 


Recall 


Results 

count 


Social 

legislation 


The new 
railway 
commis¬ 
sion 


call.” The initiative is a method by which the people may 
force the legislature to consider and to act on a proposed law, 
even if the legislature does not wish to do this. The referen¬ 
dum permits the people to stop a law passed by the legisla¬ 
ture from going into effect, until the people have voted their 
approval of it. The recall permits the people to remove an 
official from office before the end of the term for which he 
was elected. All of these are based, at bottom, on the idea 
that the people can never completely trust the men whom 
they elect to office. 

There are men who believe that these are very poor meth¬ 
ods of learning the people’s will, which is, after all, the pur¬ 
pose of a democratic form of government. But this charge 
remains to be proved, as yet, and when the best men — the 
men who can be most trusted — will not let themselves be 
elected to the legislature, there seems to be no other way. 
But these bits of political machinery should never be thought 
of as things worth while in themselves. They must always 
be tested to see whether they work well, whether they help 
to get that for which they were intended. Their only pur¬ 
pose is to secure good government by and for good citizens. 

The political change of 1909-11 did not stop, however, 
with just the machinery of government. Year after year 
many new laws were passed, all intended to permit a happier 
and better everyday life to the people of the state. This is 
called social legislation. It was in line with what was going 
on in many other states, and after the states had started the 
ball rolling, the national government at Washington began 
to pass similar laws. 

In California a good railway commission was at last es¬ 
tablished. The new law recognized that the railroads were 
needed and used by everybody, so that everybody had an 
interest in prosperous railroads and good service. But the 


NEW POLITICAL LIFE 


183 


law also recognized that the railroads sometimes treated 
the people wrongly. The business of the railway com- 


Big Tkee, Wawona. 

It is not likely that special legislation will ever be required to protect the 
lumber in California’s Big Trees. 

mission was to help the railroads to be prosperous, and 
also to watch over the people’s rights. 




Woman 

suffrage 


Social 

better¬ 

ment 


Education 



184 CALIFORNIA’S STORY 

Women were given the right to vote in 1911. Laws have 
been passed for better care and use of the forests and other 
natural resources; for workingmen’s insurance in industrial 
enterprises; for shortening the hours of labor; for the pro¬ 
tection of investors against fake concerns; against gambling; 
a long list, in fact, of laws intended to secure more equal op¬ 
portunity to citizens, better health and living conditions, and 
a higher moral standing. 

Throughout all of California’s history she has been gener¬ 
ous in aid of public education, and is now, as always, one of 


View Across the Campus of the University of California. 

the leaders in the Union in support of schools, whether in 
rural communities or cities, in the Normal schools, or in the 
State University. She pays the highest average salaries 
of all the states, and has a larger percentage of pupils in 
high school than any other. 

This time, unlike the political upheavals of vigilante days, 
or of 1879, men were not content, once having attacked a 
bad situation, to let their energy lag and to sink back into 





NEW POLITICAL LIFE 


185 



the old rut. There has been some weakening, for men get 
weary even in a good cause, but on the whole the new life of 


Underwood, and Underwood Studios, N. Y. 


Herbert Hoover. 

the state, begun in 1909, has proved permanent. Many who 
were opposed to the changes then made are now strong in 








186 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


The Great 
War 


California 
4)oys in the 
war 


Herbert 

Hoover 


their praise. These are the great changes since 1909 that 
cannot be told in story, but that must be studied and thought 
about. They have made a greater alteration in the real 
California than anything in her past history. 

When America in 1917 went into-the great European War 
almost everything else had to be set aside for the moment in 
order that California might take her full share in the strug¬ 
gle. Even before 1917 many of her boys, especially from 
the universities and colleges, had gone to France to fight for 
the Allies, or to work with them in any way they could. 

When the draft came, though there were United States 
training camps at Menlo Park and San Diego, most of the 
California boys were sent to Camp Lewis, Washington. 
Later most of them “went across” to fight with the 91st 
Division, and were in the battles of St. Mihiel and the Ar- 
gonne. Then they were moved up into Belgium, where, 
just before the Armistice, they were fighting side by side 
with French and British troops at Oudenarde. 

California boys, either as volunteers or as drafted men, 
were serving all over Europe, as far east as the Bulgarian 
border, in Siberia, or on the ocean in submarine chasers, 
destroyers, and other sorts of war vessels. California as a 
state and the California boys did their full share in helping 
to win the war. 

One great Californian, Herbert Hoover, had, from the very 
beginning of the war in 1914, organized a wonderful relief 
work for the starving people of Belgium. Later, he became 
Food Administrator for the United States, and later still, 
he w r as put in charge of feeding starving peoples in Europe 
after the Armistice of November 11, 1918. 

Because he was a Californian he naturally picked many 
California men to help him. But he had also a better rea¬ 
son, for he claimed that these western boys and men were 


NEW POLITICAL LIFE 




Mount Shasta. 

One of the world’s most beautiful mountains. 














188 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Expan¬ 
sion in the 
Pacific 


Alaska 


The Ha¬ 
waiian 
Islands 


The Philip¬ 
pines 


Trade with 
the Orient 


more ready and able in putting through a new job than the 
average man from the East. His men served all over cen¬ 
tral Europe, supplying food, managing railroads and river 
traffic to transport the food, and even sometimes manag¬ 
ing states, which the people, newly freed from autocratic 
government, did not seem to know how to manage for them¬ 
selves. 

While California grew and prospered with the coming of 
people to develop her resources, she was also helped by the 
expansion of the United States in the Pacific. In 1867, just 
after the close of the Civil War, Russia sold to the United 
States her territory of Alaska. When gold was discovered 
there, it was from California especially, because of their 
knowledge of gold mining, that men went to Alaska to de¬ 
velop the new mining fields. 

In the Hawaiian Islands Americans had been the principal 
merchants and planters for many years, and in 1893 a revo¬ 
lution occurred there with an appeal to be annexed by the 
United States. This was refused until the Spanish-Ameri- 
can War showed the necessity of owning the islands in 
order to protect our troops going to the Philippines. Then, 
in July, 1898, Congress passed the act of annexation and it 
was approved by President McKinley. 

When the Spanish-American War began there was no 
thought of annexing the Philippines. But it proved in the 
end unwise to restore them to the bad government of Spain, 
and they were taken under guardianship by the United 
States until they could be trained to govern themselves. 

In addition to these direct interests of the United States, 
in which California is interested as much as, if not more 
than, any other part of the Union, there has been a steady 
growth of trade with the great nations of the Orient, like 
China and Japan. The prosperity and good order of all 


NEW POLITICAL LIFE 


189 


these places is very directly of importance to California, for 
she has much trade with them. 

In the case of Japan there has been trouble at times be- The “Japa- 
cause of the coming of more Japanese to California than j^ e „ ques_ 
our people like to have living here and owning property in 
the state. But up to the present, in spite of outcries and 
angry talk on both sides, the wiser people of the state have 
tried to smooth out difficulties in a just way. In more ways 
than one, California and Japan need to be good friends, and 
this should be remembered whenever the “Japanese ques¬ 
tion” is talked about. 


CHAPTER XVIII 



THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 

In this story of California no effort has been made to tell 
all the details of each step in growth. It has seemed best to 
set forth only the big things of each period, and to say 


Rebuilding San Francisco. 

A fine example of what the men of the city “have thought and dared and 
done.” 

something about what each has meant in the history of the 
state. But discoveries made, laws passed, industries es¬ 
tablished are all the results of what men, living men, have 
thought and dared and done. In their lives one may read 

190 







THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


191 


tif the actions which, when put together, make up the life 
and history of the state. The bad men, for there were bad 
men too, need not be considered. They are best punished 
by being forgotten. But a few great names should be re¬ 
membered. Here are a few whose lives and acts are espe¬ 
cially worthy of study: 

James King was born in the District of Columbia in 1822. 
There were so many boys named James King in the District 
that he added the name of his father, William, and was al¬ 
ways known as James King of William. This was then a 
not unusual thing to do in some parts of the United States. 
In 1848 King came to California. At first he was a mer¬ 
chant, then a banker, but in 1855 he started a newspaper in 
San Francisco, the Daily Evening Bulletin. 

All through his life he had been a very honest, upright, 
straightforward man. And he was a very brave man also, 
for he dared to refuse to fight a duel at a time when duel¬ 
ing was common. In fact, his opinions about the wrong of 
dueling had long been known, so that the man who challenged 
him knew that King would refuse. King’s refusal to fight, 
and the reasons he gave, were approved by all good citizens 
and his act pretty much put an end to the bad practice. 

In his newspaper he attacked vice and crime and public 
corruption in a way no one had before dared to do in San 
Francisco. His language was sometimes coarse and brutal, 
but he told the truth. No newspaper like the Bulletin had 
appeared before, even in the whole United States. It was a 
fighting paper, fighting for Jaw and order. At last one of the 
men whom he attacked in his paper, shot King on the street. 
The result was the Vigilance Committee of 1856, led by Wil¬ 
liam T. Coleman whose story has already been told. James 
King of William died for his country as much as did any 
soldier fighting in war, — a man of courage, honor, and a 


James 

King 


Has cour¬ 
age to re¬ 
fuse a 
challenge 


The patriot 
editor 


192 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Thomas 
Starr King 


The sani¬ 
tary com¬ 
mission 

A great 
orator 


persistent enemy of bad laws and evil men. He is the 
patriot editor of California. 

Thomas Starr King was a product of the best that New 
England could give in education, culture, and high ideals. 
In Massachusetts he was a Unitarian clergyman but was 

forced to come west by 
poor health. In 1860 he 
arrived in San Francisco 
and at once became 
known as an eloquent 
and inspiring preacher 
whose sermons drew 
great throngs to his 
church. Then came the - 
Civil War and King 
threw himself heart and 
soul into the cause of 
the Union. He began 
the California division 
of the Sanitary Commis¬ 
sion, to help sick and 
wounded soldiers, and it 
was his work that made California give over a million and 
a half dollars, nearly one third of all the money raised for 
this cause in the whole United States. 

The greatest efforts of King, however, were spent in uniting 
the people of the state on the side of the North. He lectured 
and talked wherever he could get an audience, and soon, 
everywhere, people were eager to hear him. He was a great 
orator, with strong emotions, earnest, convinced of right in 
whatever he said. At the beginning of the Civil War Cali¬ 
fornia was inclined to think that she was so far away from 
the seat of war that she could not be of much help. She was 



Thomas Starr King. 




THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


193 



Kearsarge Pinnacles at the Head of King’s River. 
This river is named for Thomas Starr King. 





194 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


on the side of the North, but did not see how she could show 
it by deeds. 

The Starr King changed all this and taught the state her duty 

patriot k e ]p ac tively in every possible way. He was the close 

P friend and adviser of nearly all the men who controlled Cali¬ 

fornia during the war. 

Not in good health, he 
wore himself out in the 
work, dying in 1864 
before the northern vic¬ 
tory, for which he longed. 

In these brief four 
years Thomas Starr King 
left a permanent stamp 
on the intellectual life 
and upon the patriotism 
of the state. He is Cali¬ 
fornia’s greatest patriot 
preacher. 

Theodore Theodore D. Judah 

D. Judah was a na tive of Connect¬ 
icut, educated as an en¬ 
gineer. In 1853 he was brought out to California in order 
to build a railroad from Sacramento to the mines. This 
road was built as far as Folsom in 1856 and then work 
stopped because the funds for its construction gave out. 
There was already much talk in California about a railroad 
that should cross the Sierras, but no one had tried to find out 
whether it really could be done. Judah made up his mind to 
know the facts. He took a stage journey to Nevada, and 
with the keen eye of an engineer estimated the grades and 
curves of the mountains. From that trip he came back 
enthusiastic over the possibilities of the railroad. 




THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


195 







Muir, Wheeler, and Others, at the Foot of One of the Big Trees 
















196 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Judah ex¬ 
plores the 
mountains 


Sent to 
Washing¬ 
ton 


An engi¬ 
neer with 
vision 


Leland 

Stanford 


Judah was still a young man, only thirty years old; and 
older men were inclined to smile at his “youthful enthu¬ 
siasm/’ But he determined to study and to know the moun¬ 
tains so thoroughly that he could prove his plan feasible. 
For two years he tramped and climbed all over the Sierras, 
looking for passes over which a railroad could be built. In 
1859 there was a convention in San Francisco to discuss the 
railroad and Judah was a delegate to it. He showed that he 
knew more than any one else about the matter. As a result 
he was sent to Washington to urge help from Congress, but 
he failed to get that help. 

When the four Sacramento merchants referred to on page 
143 made up their minds to build a railroad, they turned to 
Judah as the only man qualified to be their engineer. A 
company was organized in June, 1861, and again Judah went 
to Washington. This time he got a friendly hearing, for 
now the Civil War had begun, and the importance of a rail¬ 
road was seen. On July 21, 1862, he started west again by 
steamer from New York. 

Arrived in California he was busy day and night in direct¬ 
ing the surveys for construction. Again in October, 1863, he 
set out for Washington but was attacked by illness on the 
way, and died in New York, November 2, 1863, when but 
thirty-seven years old. 

Because he did not live to build the road he was quickly 
forgotten. But it was his vision and his hard work for years 
that made it possible to build the road so quickly. Theo¬ 
dore D. Judah, civil engineer, dreamed dreams of a railroad, 
toiled hard to make his dreams come true, saw the beginnings 
of realization, but not the glorious achievement. 

Four plain merchants of Sacramento named Huntington, 
Crocker, Hopkins, and Stanford were bold enough to plan a 
transcontinental railroad, when others had given up the 


THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


197 


plan as impractical. All were really great in the sense that 
they dared great things. But one of them, Leland Stanford, 
showed that he was not content with merely being a big man 
in business. He was governor of California in 1862 and was 

a sturdy patriot for the 
Union. All four men 
made great wealth and 
this was later a ground 
of complaint by some 
against them. 

But Stanford, through 
all the rest of his life as 
governor, or as United 
States senator, showed 
that he wished to use 
his wealth in patriotic 
and useful service. He 
did not seek wealth 
merely for purely selfish 
ends. Especially did he 
love California and in 
the end he gave his 
wealth to found a great 
educational institution — Stanford University — for the 
benefit of the youth of the state. He was born in New 
York, but he called himself a “son of California.” Leland 
Stanford was the great railroad builder. 

James Lick was born in Pennsylvania in 1796. He was 
not a great man in the sense that these others were great, 
but he did one great thing for California. While he lived 
he was “queer,” so much so that many people thought he 
was a half-crazy miser. Yet he was neither a miser, for at 
times he gave his money generously and lavishly, nor crazy, 



James Lick. 


Governor 

and 

senator 


A great 
railroad 
builder 


James Lick 





198 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Buys land 
in San 
Francisco 


The ma¬ 
hogany 
mill 


Becomes 
a philan¬ 
thropist 


since he often showed a foresight in business amounting 
almost to genius. 

First he learned piano-making in New York, then went to 
the Argentine Republic and stayed there ten years in this 
business. Next he wandered about South America, but 
. when he heard that Commodore Sloat had raised the Ameri¬ 
can flag at Monterey, he started post haste for California. 
He landed in San Francisco in the fall of 1847 with thirty 
thousand dollars in an old iron safe. 

Soon came the rush to the gold mines. Lick did not go, 
for he saw that San Francisco must soon become a great 
city. Instead of hurrying to the mines, as did most men, 
he showed foresight by buying up sand hills where he thought 
the city would have to be built. This was the foundation 
of his great wealth. In 1852 he bought land near San Jose 
and put upon it a flour mill that made every one laugh, for 
it was finished throughout with solid mahogany, like a fine 
house. But the mill produced the best flour in California, 
and was a paying investment. 

Then he started an orchard and began to show some of 
those traits that made people think he was “queer” and a 
miser. He had an idea that bones buried at the roots of 
the trees would make them grow rapidly, so he went about 
the restaurants and homes collecting bones. He lived in a 
very poor house and drove about in an old wagon ready to 
fall to pieces, tied up with rope. He wore poor clothes. He 
did not care for social talk and never had any one to visit 
him in his house. The fact was he preferred to be let alone. 
Yet every one knew that he was rich. 

When lack was seventy-seven years old he suddenly be¬ 
gan to give his money away, for scientific purposes and for 
philanthropy. There were many such gifts, all intended to 
help San Francisco and California. Finally he thought of 


THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


199 



Pepper Trees, Pasadena. 

the plan of giving a great telescope, the most powerful yet 
built. 

This idea, which was Lick’s own, gradually grew-to the plan The Lick 
of establishing an observatory which should not only be of ^® erva " 
service to the whole world, but should be one of the wonders 
of California. It was at first intended to erect this observa- 




200 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


A mer¬ 
chant pa¬ 
tron of 
science 


Adolph 

Sutro 


The Com¬ 
stock lode 
of 1859 


A tunnel 
needed 


tory on the summit of the Sierras, near Lake Tahoe, but 
finally Mt. Hamilton, near San Jose, was the site elected. 
There the Lick Observatory stands, and its service to sci¬ 
ence has been all that Lick hoped for it. 

James Lick for most of his life was one of the “curiosities” 
of California. It seemed as if his one and only thought was 
to make money. For most of his life he was just a little 
man, not a great one, with the gift of making and keeping 
money. At last he saw the folly of this, and though he was 
never a great man, he made up for his littleness in the past 
by a great idea, and furnished the money to make it real. 

Adolph Sutro was born in Germany in 1830. In 1848 
there came a great revolution, the business of the family was 
ruined, and Sutro’s mother, a widow, came to the LTnited 
States with her family of boys, so that they might have a 
chance to prosper in this new country. When they landed 
in New York the gold rush to California was on, and Adolph 
Sutro joined it. He reached San Francisco in November, 
1850. For the next nine years he turned his hand to any¬ 
thing that would gain a living, buying and selling all sorts 
of goods, but never on a large scale, for he had no capital. 

In 1859, the great Comstock silver lode in Nevada was dis¬ 
covered and a new great mining rush took place. The 
mines were located on a high ridge which sloped down toward 
the Carson River. Nearly all of the mines were begun on the 
top of the ridge, and the shafts were dug straight down into 
the ridge. As the mines grew deeper they became very 
hard to work because of heat, bad ventilation, and the con¬ 
stant filling with water. 

Sutro went to see the mines and at once his big idea came 
to him. Why not build a tunnel far down on the ridge, 
connecting the mines on a slope toward the Carson River. 
This would let the water run off, would give good air, and 




THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 201 


i 





Winter Scene in a Los Angeles Garden. 
















202 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Sutro 
fights the 
“ money 
power ” 


The tun¬ 
nel com¬ 
pleted, 1878 


A citizen 
promoter 


would permit the following of the silver lode much farther 
into the earth than was otherwise possible. 

At once Sutro set to work on this idea. Plans were drawn, 
contracts made with the mines, and men with money were 
interested in the project. Sutro had no money of his own. 
No one objected and every one approved so long as 
there seemed little chance of the plan being carried out. 
But when it began to seem as if the plan would succeed, 
and that there would be great profit for Sutro in it, then 
some rich men were envious and tried to grab the enter¬ 
prise. 

Their first step was to make difficulties so that Sutro 
would have to give up. They opposed Sutro everywhere, in 
the newspapers, at the mines, and in Congress, but every¬ 
where Sutro showed that he had courage and fight in every 
inch of him. He learned in the fight that against this group 
of rich men his only hope was to make the people understand 
what was going on, and that they would back him. In this 
way he became a popular leader against that group of the 
“money power” who made money, not by honest business, 
but by taking it away from others. 

The contest lasted for years, but all the time the tunnel 
was being dug, and at last it was completed in 1878. It cut 
the lode 1663 feet below the surface and was 20,489 feet long. 
It did all that Sutro had claimed for it and it made him a 
rich man. Then he came back to San Francisco and spent 
his time in good deeds for the city. Always he stood ready 
to take up any fight against the unscrupulous use of money 
harmful to the people’s interest and he was honored for this 
by being elected mayor. 

Adolph Sutro was first of all a great promoter. He 
showed that he could conceive a big idea, and then that 
against the very bitterest opposition, he had the pluck and 


THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


203 


persistence to put it through. Best of all he showed that he 
was a promoter of good citizenship. 

John Muir was a Scotch boy whose family had emigrated John Muir 
to Wisconsin when John was eleven years old. He was very 
poor, worked very hard, but always had a genius for inven¬ 
tion and while still on the farm had made of nothing but 
wood a great number of useful machines. He made a wooden 



John Muir and John Burroughs. 


clock with an alarm that struck a match and lighted the 
fire, and another clock which would tip up his bed and 
throw him out when it was time to get up in the morning. 

These and many other inventions were exhibited at a His curious 
state fair in Wisconsin in 1860, and people said he ought to inventions 
go to the university for an education. For four years he 
worked his way through the university. At the end of that 




204 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Chooses 
his life 
work 


Student of 
nature 


Scientist 


Writer 


Luther 

Burbank 


time he had to choose what he would do, be a scientist, a 
physician, an inventor, or a student of outdoor life. He 
saw that life was too short for all these things and he chose 
the last, for he loved it most, though in the end what he saw 
and told about in nature, made him a scientist also. 

So from the first Muir was wise enough to know what he 
wanted most to be, and then persistent enough to stick to 
it. He tramped all over the southern states, and in 1868 he 
came to California. Here he found more than anywhere else 
that beauty in nature which his heart longed for. Every¬ 
where were beauties to be loved, but especially in the moun¬ 
tains. For forty years and more he tramped and climbed 
and camped in the mountains. What he saw he wrote 
about in words that were so simple and yet so loving that he 
became the real prose poet of California. 

He discovered new things also, for he proved, what scien¬ 
tists had not believed before, that there were still living 
glaciers in California. In Alaska the great Muir glacier was 
named for him. John Muir will stand for all time as one of 
California’s truly great men, because what he wrote will 
last and will teach the beauty and the majesty of nature. 

These men, each in his own way, did some great, impor¬ 
tant thing for California. They lived in and for California, 
and they are dead. There are other men still living who are 
also great, but since they are still active, and we hear about 
them every day, there is no need to do more than briefly 
mention them. 

Luther Burbank was born in Massachusetts in 1849. He 
is a skilled expert in the growing and transforming of fruits 
and flowers. His service for California will never end, for 
it has added enormously and for all time to the state’s pros¬ 
perity. His life will be studied for what he himself was, a 
scientist, turning his genius to the benefit of his fellow men. 


THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


205 



Gold of Ophir Roses. 

One of the “beauties of nature” which Muir loved. 






206 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 



Benjamin Benjamin Ide Wheeler was born in Massachusetts in 1854. 
Wheeler ^ as ^ een a won d er f u l organizer of education. Pie made 
the people of California understand that they, just as well 
as the older states, needed and could have, if they would, a 


Benjamin Ide Wheeler. David Starr Jordan. 

President of the University of Cali- Chancellor Emeritus of Stanford 
fornia. University. 

great institution of learning. His work as a builder of things 
that will last is permanently fixed in the university at 
Berkeley. 

David David Starr Jordan was born in New York in 1851. He 
Jordan a ^ so * s an e d uca t° r > first president of Stanford University, 
which in its own way and with its own methods, largely the 
creation of Jordan’s brain, will stand as his monument. 
His influence as an idealist, preaching high things to be 
striven for until they are attained, reaches far beyond uni¬ 
versity walls. 

Hiram Hiram Johnson was born in California in 1866. He is 
Johnson a fighting reformer, whose personality and leadership were 





THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


207 



The Leconte Oak, University of California. 




208 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


Herbert 

Hoover 


Vigilance is 
the price of 
liberty 


The words 
of Thomas 
Huxley 


the backbone of California’s political contest of 1910, and 
whose tenacity has made that movement lasting and efficient 
in practical legislation. Now he has been transferred to 
national politics in Washington, but, whatever his future 
career there, his will be one of the great names among the 
leaders of the reform movement in California. 

Herbert Hoover was born in Iowa in 1874. A mining en¬ 
gineer of world reputation he was almost unknown in Cali¬ 
fornia before 1914, when he organized the great Commission 
for Relief of Belgium. Since then California has claimed 
him as one of her sons of whom she is most proud. Whether 
as student, mining engineer, world philanthropist, or high 
government official, he has always exhibited qualities of 
courage, skillful organization, straight thinking, and quick 
action. And it is high thinking also, for whatever he does 
shows the ideal of being of service to others. 

Here is a dozen — twelve names of Californians of real 
eminence — names familiar not merely to the people of the 
state, but some of them known throughout the United States, 
and some throughout the world. It is a list to be proud of, 
yet it could be greatly lengthened. 

What these names mean in deeds should be on the tongue’s 
end of every boy and girl in California. Yet all these men 
are great because, we, the simple people permit and wish 
them to be so, for to become great leaders and great doers 
they must work with and for us. It is upon us, then, that 
it depends whether great and good things shall be done. 
Above all, it is upon us that just and good government 
must depend. 

A great man, Thomas Huxley, once said when speaking of 
democratic government, that its chief danger was that peo¬ 
ple were careless, uninterested in politics and in the duties of 
citizenship. Because at the time when he spoke there had 


THE MEN OF CALIFORNIA 


209 



been bad men in power, he added : “ Eternal suspicion is the 
price of liberty.” 

The history of California shows how truly he spoke of the 
effects of carelessness. But it is not fair to be suspicious 
only. One must be awake to his own duty, however little 
it seems, and then be vigilant in condemning those who 





210 


CALIFORNIA’S STORY 


would do bad things, and vigilant also to reward with honor 
those who are great in doing good things. There is a differ¬ 
ence between being suspicious and being vigilant. Not 
“eternal suspicion” but “eternal vigilance” is the price of 
liberty. 


INDEX 


A 

Admission Day, 129. 

Africa, 4, 21. 

Alameda, 130. 

Alaska, 52, 188, 204. 

Allegheny Mountains, 86. 

Amazons, 2, 4. 

American Flag, 101. 

American River, 102, 108, 110. 
Amusements, 82. 

Anian, Strait of, 4, 18. 

Antonio, Father, 38. 

Anza, 61-67, 69, 72, 73, 93. 

Apaches, 61, 72. 

Argonne, 186. 

Arizona, 44,45, 46, 47, 48, 50, 61, 145. 
Arkansas River, 93. 

Arlington, 157. 

Armistice, 186. 

Atlantic Slope, 86, 115. 

Aurora, 98. 

Australia, 113. 

Avalon, 36. 

B 

Bakersfield, 164. 

Balboa, 1, 2. 

Baltimore, 141. 

Bay of Smokes, 8, 10. 

Bay of Whales, 32. 

Bautista Canon, 66. 

Bear Flag, 102, 103. 

Bear Flag Republic, 103. 

Belgium, 186. 

Berkeley, 74. 

Bolinas Lagoon, 166. 

Bonanza farms, 158, 159, 160. 

Boom times, 146, 147, 153. 

Borrego Valley, 64. 

Boston, 85, 122. 

Brannan, 110. 


Bryce, 151. 

Buenaventura River, 96. 

Buffalo, 107. 

Bulletin, 191. 

Burbank, 204. 

Burnet, 128, 129, 130. 

Burroughs, 178, 203. 

C 

Caborca, 61, 62. 

Cabrillo, 4, 6, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 
34, 36, 38, 41, 42. 

Cahuilla Valley, 64. 

California, named, 3; ceded to 
United States, 103; seal of, 125; 
admitted to the Union, 129. 
“California idea,” 151. 

California Valley, 101. 

Camino Real, 129, 130. 

Camp Lewis, 186. 

Campbell, 154, 155. 

Canada, 86. 

Cape Horn, 85, 114. 

Cape Mendocino, 40, 42. 

Cape of Good Hope, 22. 

Carmel Mission, 39, 60. 

Carmel Valley, 38, 60. 

Carson, 95, 98, 101. 

Carson River, 98, 200. 

Casey, 135. 

Catalina Island, 36. 

Cathedral Peaks, 136. 

Cattle, 68, 73, 82, 162. 

Caucus, 176. 

Central America, 2. 

Central Pacific, 143, 145. 

Cermeno, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 42. 
Chicago, 107, 141. 

China, 86, 113; 188. 

Chinese, 147, 149, 152, 153. 

Civic spirit, 176. 

Civil War, 141, 146, 188, 192. 






212 INDEX 


Clark, Fred, 64. 

Cliff Dwellings, 29. 

Coleman, 132, 135, 191. 

Coloma, 108. 

Colorado Desert, 62, 115, 

Colorado River, 64, 88. 

Columbia River, 93. 

Columbus, 1, 2. 

Compromise of 1850, 128. 

Comstock Lode, 200. ' 

Conditions, in 1849, 120, 121, 122, 
124; in 1851, 132-137; in 1879, 
149 ; after the Fire, 170-174. 
Confederacy, 142. 

Congress, 126, 128, 153. 

Connecticut, 194. 

Constitution, of 1849, 126; of 1879, 
148, 149, 150, 151. 

Coronado, 6. 

Cortez, 2, 3, 4, 6. 

Coyote Canon, 64. 

Crespi, 52, 54, 58, 76. 

Crisis of 1873, 148. 

Crocker, 143. 

D 

Dana, 86. 

Declaration of Independence, 74. 
Democracy, after the Fire, 172. 
Desert, 50, 56, 64, 67. 

Devil’s Highway, 62. 

Direct Primary, 176, 178. 

Donner, 116. 

Donner Lake, 116. 

Drake, 19-26, 42. 

Drake’s Bay, 20, 22, 30, 40. 

Durant, 145. 

E 

Earthquake, 2, 58, 165. 

Earthquake River, 58. 

Education, 184. 

Eixarch, 72. 

El Capitan, 105. 

England, 43. 

* F 

Farralones, 85. 

Farms, 145, 147, 148, 158, 160. 

Fault line, 166. 


Ferrelo, 14, 15, 17, 18, 40, 42. 
Filibusters, 137. 

Fillmore, 129. 

Fires, 122, 132, 166. 

First Presbyterian Church, 121, 
Folsom, 194. 

Font, 68. 

Fort Ross, 84, 94. 

Fort Vancouver, 93. 
Forty-niners, 119, 120. 

France, 43, 113. 

Freight, 141, 147, 160. 

Fremont, 95, 103. 

Fremont’s Peak, 95. 

Fruit, 148, 153, 157, 158. 
Funston, 170. 

Furs, 38, 85, 86, 93. 

G 

Galvez, 52. 

Garces, 62, 70, 72. 

Gerdes, 167. 

Germany, 113, 118. 

Gila River, 47, 62, 72. 

Glendora, 155. 

Gold, 2, 4, 21, 107. 

“Gold Rush,” 109, 110, 200. 
Golden Gate, 18, 37, 42, 67, 74. 
Golden Hind, 19, 20, 22, 24. 
Golden spike, 143, 144, 145. 
Graft, 147, 178, 179. 

Grain raising, 158. 

Grapes, 154, 157. 

Grazing, 162. 

Great Britain, 113. 

Great Salt Lake, 88, 92. 
Grinnell, 156. 

Growth, 152, 153. 

H 

“Happy Valley,” 121. 

Hawaiian Islands, 188. 

Heney, 179, 180. 

Hetch Hetchy Valley, 167. 
Hidalgo, 74, 81. 

Holland, 113. 

Hoover, 185, 186, 208. 

Hopkins, 143. 

Horn, Cape, 85, 114. 

Hudson’s Bay, 86. 

Huntington, 143. 

Huxley, 208. 



INDEX 


213 


I 

Illinois, 126, 141. 

Immigration, 154. 

Imperial Valley, 134. 

Independence, 116. 

India, 20. 

Indians, 2, 6, 8, 11, 12, 22, 26, 28, 
29, 34, 35, 36, 38, 46, 47, 48, 49, 56, 
57, 58, 62, 64, 80, 84, 116, 117. 
Industries, see Fruit, Mines, Oil, etc. 
Initiative, the, 181, 182. 

Iowa, 107, 126, 128, 141, 156. 

Iowa City, 107. 

Ireland, 118. 

Irrigation, 160, 162, 164. 

J 

Jackson, Helen Hunt, 64. 

Jamestown, 86. 

Japan, 188, 189. 

Japanese Question, 189. 

Jenkins, 132. 

Johnson, 179, 180, 181, 206. 

Jordan, 206. 

Judah, 142,-143, 144, 194, 196. 

K 

Kansas City, 141. 

Kearney, Dennis, 149. 

Kearny, General, 96, 103. 

King, James, 134, 135, 191, 192. 
King of Spain, 43, 62. 

King, Thomas Starr, 192, 193, 194. 
King’s River, 193. 

Kino, Father, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50. 
Klamath Lake, 96. 

Kuskof, 85. 

L 

Lake Merritt, 169. 

Lake Tahoe, 99, 101. 116. 

Leland Stanford, see Stanford. 

Life, at Sutter’s farm, 94; in the 
Gold Rush, 113; in Missions, 80; 
on ranches, 81; after the Fire, 171, 
172; new political, 175—189. 

Lick, 197, 198, 199, 200. 

Lick Observatory, 199, 200. 

Lincoln, 140, 143. 


Loreto, 57, 61. 

Los Angeles, 67, 74, 78, 88, 92, 93, 
103, 158, 164, 201. 

Los Angeles County, 107. 

Los Angeles River, 58. 

Louisiana, 106. 

Lower California, 46-50, 52, 137. 

M 

Magellan, Straits of, 19, 20. 

Mail, 138, 139. 

Manila, 25, 30, 43. 

Marshall, 107, 108, 109, 110, 112. 
Mary Lake, 96. 

Mason, 112, 113. 

McKinley, 188. 

McLoughlin, 93. 

Melo, 98, 101. 

Mendocino, Cape, 40, 42. 

Menlo Park, 186. 

Memphis, 141. 

Mexico, 1, 2, 3, 6, 18, 19, 26. 30, 
38, 40, 42, 43, 44, 52, 67, 74, 81, 
103, 106, 107, 120, 137. 

Miners, 112-114. 

Mines, 44, 114, 124, 200, 202. 
Missions, 77, 78, 80‘; see also under 
individual names. 

Mission ranches, 80. 

Mississippi, 86, 106, 116. 

Missouri, 94, 106, 116, 141. 

Missouri River, 138, 140, 141. 
Modesto, 90. 

Mojave Desert, 50, 88, 102. 

Mojave Indians, 88. 

Mono Lake, 127. 

Mono Pass, 127. 

Monterey, 17, 23, 33, 38, 39, 40, 
42, 52, 58, 59, 60, 61, 67, 74, 83. 
93, 101, 103, 104, 110, 111, 126, 
128, 198. 

Moraga, 70, 72, 74, 

Mount Hamilton, 200. 

Mount Pinos, 166. 

Mount Shasta, 187. 

Muir, 195, 203, 205. 

N 

Navel oranges, 154. 

Needles, 88. 

Nevada, 96, 127, 140, 145, 194. 




214 


INDEX 


New England, 115. 

New Helvetia, 94. 

New Mexico, 6, 44, 86, 103. 

New Orleans, 115, 141. 

New York, 107, 115, 128, 197. 
Ninety-first Division, 186. 

Normal schools, 184. 

O. 

Oakland, 74, 169, 170. 

Ogden, 86, 144. 

Ohio, 126. 

Oil, 162, 163. 

Old City Hotel, 120. 

Old Spanish Trail, 102. 

Omaha, 141, 143, 144. 

Oranges, 153, 154, 155, 159, 162. 
Oregon, 130. 

Oregon, 15, 18, 86, 93, 96, 100. 
Oregon Trail, 95. 

Ostrich farm, 157. 

Oudenarde, 186. 

Overland mail, 138, 139, 140. 

P 

Pacific Ocean, 1, 19, 20, 22, 52. 
Palma, 62, 72. 

Palou, 52, 57, 76. 

Panama, 1, 115. 

Panama Exposition, 173, 174. 
Pasadena, 152, 153, 199. 

Pelican, 19. 

Pennsylvania, 197. 

Philadelphia, 115. 

Philip, 25. 

Philippine Islands, 19, 188. 

Pima Missions, 61. 

Piute Indians, 140. 

Plymouth, 86. 

Point Arena, 166. 

Politics, 148-151, 176, 179, 180, 181- 
185. 

Polk, 126. 

“Pony Bob,” 140. 

Pony Express, 139-141. 

Portola, 50, 52, 57, 58, 59, 74. 
President, 112. 

Primaries, 176, 178. 

Promontory Point, 144. 

Q 

Queen Elizabeth, 19, 22. 


R 

Railroads, 141-145, 146, 148, 160, 
180, 183. 

Railway Commission, 182. 

Ranches, 45, 74, 80, 81, 145, 160. 
Ramona, 64. 

Rebuilding, 190. 

Recall, the, 182. 

Referendum, the, 182. 

Reforms, 181. 

Refugees, 169, 171, 172. 

Riley, 126. 

Revolution, in Hawaii, 188. 

Rivera, 52, 53, 55, 57. 

Riverside, 54, 71, 73, 154, 157. 

Rocky Mountains, 86, 95, 98, 114. 
Roosevelt, 195. 

Royal Pass, 64. 

Rubidoux Mountain, 54, 71. 

Russia, 188. 

Russian River, 84. 

Russians, 52, 84, 85, 94. 

* , ' S 
Sacramento, 94, 102, 131, 138, 140, 
144, 150, 177, 194. 

Sacramento River, 102. 

Sacramento Valley, 78, 94, 157, 158. 
Salinas Valley, 58, 157. 

Salvatierra, Father, 44, 49, 50. 

San Antonio, 53, 57. 

San Bernardino, 90. 

San Carlos, 53, 57. 

San Carlos Mission, 60, 76. 

San Carlos Pass, 64, 67, 73. 

San Diego, 42. 

San Diego, 6, 9, 34, 52, 53, 54, 56, 
57, 58, 60, 61, 74, 77, 88, 89, 90, 
91, 186. 

San Diego Mission, 34, 56. 

San Felipe Creek, 64. 

San Fernando Mission, 46. 

San Francisco, 22, 59, 67, 74, 76, 93, 
109, 110, 115, 118, 120, 123, 124, 
132, 135, 137, 138, 139, 141, 164, 
166, 172, 179, 181, 191, 192, 198. 
San Francisco Bay, 14, 37, 42, 58, 61, 
74, 85, 96, 121, 130. 

San Francisco Fire, 169-172. 

San Gabriel, 73, 88. 

San Gabriel Mission, 49, 61, 62, 65, 
66, 67, 88, 89. 



INDEX 


215 


Sanitary Commission, 192. 

San Jacinto, 66. 

San Jacinto River, 66. 

San Joaquin Valley, 78, 102, 157, 
158, 163. 

San Jose, 53. 

San Jose, 74, 78, 128, 130, 166, 170, 
198. 

San Juan Bautista Mission, 80. 

San Juan Capistrano Mission, 30, 
31, 44, 79. 

San Luis Rey Mission, 32, 43, 47. 
San Luis Obispo, 59. 

San Miguel, 6, 9, 34. 

San Miguel Mission, 78. 

San Salvador, 6. 

San Sebastian, 72. 

San Xavier Mission, 45. 

Santa Ana River, 73. 

Santa Barbara, 8, 74. 

Santa Barbara Mission, 48, 75, 77. 
Santa Clara County, 156. 

Santa Clara Mission, 74. 

Santa Clara Valley, 157, 166. 

Santa Cruz, 3, 78. 

Santa Fe, 92, 93. 

Santa Fe Railroad, 153. 

Santa Fe Trail, 55. 

Santa Lucia Mountains, 14. 

Santa Monica Bay, 8. 

Santa Olaya Lake, 72. 

Sapta Rosa, 72, 165, 167. 

Santa Tomas, 40. 

Sausalito, 170. 

Schools, 184. 

Sebastian, 62, 64, 65. 

Sebastian Pass, 72. 

Serra, 50, 52, 53, 54, 57, 58, 60, 76, 77, 
78. 

Sheep, 161, 162. 

Shelters, 170. 

Sierras, 62, 64, 72, 73, 86, 87, 89, 
93, 98, 102, 116, 140, 162, 194, 200. 
Sinaloa, 73. 

Sloat, 98, 101, 103, 198. 

Smith, 86, 88, 89, 93. 

Social legislation, 182, 184. 

Soledad, 58. 

Sonoma, 78, 103. 

Sonora, 61, 62, 73, 74. 

South Pass, 95. 

Southern Pacific Railroad, 153, 160. 
Spain, 113. 


Speculation, 147. 

St. Joseph, 139. 

St. Louis, 86, 93, 95, 96, 102, 141. 

St. Mihiel, 186. 

Stanford, 142, 143, 144, 145, 196, 197. 
Stanford University, 144, 145, 165, 
166, 167, 168, 197, 206. 

State Railway Commission, 160. 
State University, 74, 168, 184, 206 
207. 

Stockton, 158. 

Straits of Magellan, 19, 20. 

Sugar beets, 160. 

Suisun, 102. 

Sutro, 200, 202, 203. 

Sutter, 94, 108, 109. 

Sutter’s Fort, 100, 102, 109. 

Sutter’s Mill, 108. 

T 

Tahoe, Lake, 99, 101, 116, 200. 
Tehachapi Pass, 102. 

Telegraph, 139. 

Tennessee, 86. 

Texas, 44, 106. 

Theater, 83. 

Timber, 162. 

Tomas, 70. , 

Town of Canoes, 8. 

Town of Sardines, 8. 

Trade with Orient, 188. 

Traders, 85, 86, 91. 

Trading ships, 85. 

Trappers, 86, 88. 

Tubac, 61, 67, 72, 73. 

Tucson, 45. 

Tuolumne Meadows, 136. 

U 

Union, 125, 126, 128, 130, 142, 145, 
146, 164, 184. 

Union Pacific, 143, 145. 

United States, 1, 103, 106, 118. 
United States Flag, 103. 

Utah, 93, 95, 102. 

Utah Basin, 86, 96. 

University of California, 74, 168, 184, 
206, 207. 

V 

Velicata, 53, 54, 59. 

Ventura, 8. 

Ventura County, 166. 



216 


INDEX 


Victoria, 6. 

Vigilance, needed, 208, 209, 210. 
Vigilantes, 132, 135, 184, 191. 
Vizcaino, 30, 33-36, 38, 40-42, 43, 58. 

W 


Wales, 113. 

Walker, 137, 141. 

Walker River, 98. 

War, the Great, 186, 188; Spanish- 
American, 188. 

Washington, 112, 143, 186. 

Washo Indian, 98. 


Wawona, 3, 11, 133, 183. 
West Indies, 1. 

Wheat, 158, 159. 

Wheeler, 195, 206. 
Wisconsin, 203. 

Woman Suffrage, 184. 
Wyoming, 95. 


Y 

Yosemite, 27, 35, 41, 105, 117. 
Yucca, 63. 

Yuma, 62, 72. 

Yuma Indians, 62, 64. 



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